Ranma's New Path
by Joheru
Summary: A new world, new techniques, Real Friends, and whole new problems. See Ranma go through whole new adventures while trying to stay alive in the world of Naruto... and YES I know I suck at summaries
1. Prologue: A New Voyage

It had been a while since he started traveling, he was finally free from the engagements, free of his rivals, and free to make his own life. All due to Ryoga's stupid plans, you see Ranma was currently sporting the body of a twelve year old. How did this happen you ask?

It all started about six months ago…

Flashback

Ranma threw another punch-kick combo powered by ki as he tried to get the cure for his current condition from Ryoga, who had put some of the age-reversing mushrooms in Akane's cooking, which had been force fed to him by said girl.

Lo, and behold everyone's surprise when he had de-aged back to a twelve year old.

Ranma had attacked Ryoga, intent on getting the mushrooms to cure himself back. Unfortunately the mushrooms had been destroyed during the battle. When this happened Ryoga had been beaten to a pulp by an enraged Ranma, before he got beaten by Akane for 'picking on Ryoga'.

Ranma had been saved from any other problems when his mother showed up. She had been enraged at what had been done to Ranma. Nodoka had then broken the engagements, argumenting that she had had enough of everyone taking advantage of her son, and that from that moment forward any promises made by Genma, past, present or future regarding Ranma would be void.

End Flashback

* * *

Ranma Saotome was currently walking through a forest in China, he had been traveling for a while, he could feel his goal was close.

"Why is he in China of all places you ask?"

Well he was currently looking for a cure for his curse….again. Although this time around the information came from Cologne herself. Amazingly the old amazon, seeing Ranma could no longer marry Shampoo decided to adopt Ranma into the tribe instead.

Being a tribe member had it's perks, as Ranma found out. Cologne gave him directions of a place where an old ninja clan that had a way of sealing curses. The ninja clan had left Japan, and settled in the outer region of the Bayankala mountains past Jusendo, and Mount Phoenix. The only way of reaching such a place was going through Jusenkyo, and Jusendo which had been a really perilous task since all the place was now flooded, who knows what would have happened to him if he had fallen in.

Fortunately he had called in a favor from Herb, who was happy to help, since Ranma had been kind enough to get rid of Saffron. After Herb had dropped him off on the other side Ranma had thanked him. Herb had offered to come with him since Ranma would need his help to cross Jusenkyo on his way back, but Ranma had politely turned down the offer telling him he wouldn't come back the same way so he didn't need to worry. And so Ranma continued his voyage.

* * *

Ranma was now about two days travel into the weird, and dangerous forest that lay behind Phoenix Mountain. So far he had encountered giant carnivorous insects, giant snakes, and giant Tigers. Basically all the predatory animals he had encountered were pretty much giant here as were the plants, the forest was composed of the highest trees he'd seen.

As of the moment he was unscathed only thanks to the fact that he had unsealed his father's forbidden techniques, though he didn't dare use some of the most powerful techniques fearing his younger body wouldn't be able to withstand them.

About half a day later found Ranma's luck running out, you see, currently Ranma was traveling via the branches of the giant trees at full speed, a huge viper hot on his tail. "Man, why me?" he thought as he barely escaped being devoured by the giant snake as it lunged at him. The fact that the snake snapped a large tree branch as thick as a buss wasn't lost to the martial artist.

Ranma reevaluated his options; one, running was getting him nowhere. Two, using the Umi Sen Ken was out of the question since he was currently using most of his ki to dodge the damned animal. Three, he couldn't waste too much ki knowing, or was that NOT knowing what other dangers were lurking in the forest.

"That only leaves one option." mumbled Ranma. 'I didn't think I'd need to use this one of my new techniques so soon.' he thought as he used the Soul of Ice to lower his body temperature, while he summoned a hot aura around his body. Just as he was doing this, the giant viper turned towards him, not loosing a second it lunged towards him, it's huge maw open wide ready to swallow him whole. Ranma smirked as the giant snake came into range, he snapped his arms backwards at high speed.

"Eat this! Hiryu Shoten Ha Revised: Howling Dragon's Devine Assault!!" cried Ranma as a whirlwind shot from him towards the snake's open maw.

The tornado hit the snake, engulfing it, pushing it back toward the forest floor, but the tornado didn't stop there. The snake's was cut by the vacuum blades that were hidden in the tornado, the only testament to their existence was the deep cuts that appeared all over the snake's body. By the time the tornado ceased to exist, and the wounded snake was freed, surprisingly still alive, it's prey was long gone.

Meanwhile Ranma was again traveling through the forest; amazingly the attack hadn't taken too much energy. "Finally got rid of that thing, thought I was a gonner for a moment back there." mumbled Ranma as he stopped in his tracks. In front of him the forest ended, and opened up into a large clearing, about fifty feet from the forest edge stood his destiny. A small town by the looks of it; the town itself was surrounded by a worn out palisade. Ranma dropped down, and started walking towards the town, as he reached the broken gates he got a bad feeling. Stepping through the gates he recognized the Japanese style buildings, indicating it was his destiny, but the town seemed to be long abandoned The buildings were run down, and the style looked to be from last century.

"This sucks" he mumbled as he walked down the deserted street.

'Weird' he thought, as he noticed the place looked like it had simply been abandoned.

He kept walking through town until he felt it, a presence was right up the street, and around the next corner. Ranma ran towards the presence feeling as it started to move away quickly. As he turned the corner he caught sight of a cloaked figure before it turned right, rounding a corner, and out of sight. Ranma ran faster feeling the presence was putting distance between both of them. Ranma took to the roofs intent on recovering the ground he had lost.

As he landed on the roof he was surprised to see the figure standing atop a roof top waiting for him about two blocks away from him, as if it was waiting for him to follow.The moment Ranma took a step forward the figure turned, and ran…or rather roof hopped away.

"Wait! I'm not going to hurt you! I'm just looking for someone who can help me!" shouted Ranma.

Not loosing another second Ranma followed trying to keep up with the cloaked figure. 'Man he's fast!' thought Ranma as he pumped some ki into his legs raising his speed. After a few minutes of running, the figure led him towards a large property at the far edge of town. The figure entered the large house through the open double doors that made up the main entrance to the house.

Ranma landed on top of the main gate of the property, stopping as he felt the presence had stopped moving after entering the house. After studying his options for a couple of minutes, and decided a direct approach was best to show he wasn't here to fight. Ranma was about to jump down towards the ground but stopped as his danger sense flared up, and just in time too as he detected several traps scattered all over the place.

Ranma smirked, he'd show the person he was following he wasn't that easy to fool. He then proceeded to jump all the way to the main door using a bit of his ki effectively avoiding all the traps in the courtyard. This was quite a feat since the main door was about fifteen meters away from the main gate.

He cautiously entered the house, every step calculated so as not to set one of the many traps he expected to be around the house.

"Are you coming in or what?" asked a voice from a doorway a few feet infront of him. Ranma looked up to see the cloaked figure regarding him. By the sound of the voice it was an old man.

"O.k." Replied Ranma as he walked towards the man who turned around, and entered the room. As Ranma entered he found himself in a small living room. There was a small table in the middle of the room, on was a pair of tea cups, apparently freshly made.

Of to one side there was a bed, on the other side of the room there was a dek with several scrolls lying open, a few books, were open too. Beside the desk there was a tall book shelf that held a large variety of books, and scrolls.

"Please, sit down traveler." The man said as he walked towards the desk while taking the cloak off.

While he sat down he studied the man, now that his cloak was off, and set on a perch on the other side of the desk. The man seemed to be in his late thirties to early fourties, he had light blonde spiky hair, and deep blue eyes much like his own, but they seemed to hold something more. The man wore a simple grey tunic, and leather boots. But what surprised Ranma about the man was that the man exuded an aura of power far greater than Saffron's own.

"Quite a technique you used against Manda out in the forest. That should keep the damned viper out of my hair for a couple of days." said the man as he sat, and motioned to the drink on the table in front of Ranma. "Please drink, you must be tired after your long trip…." The man said leaving his sentence hanging as if prompting for a name.

"Ranma Saotome heir to the Saotome school of martial arts." Ranma answered, a smirk coming to his face showing off his confidence at his title.

"Nice to meet you Ranma, you can call me Arashi Uzumaki."


	2. Chapter 1: Ranma's New Sensei

Disclaimer: I don't own either Ranma, Naruto, or Oh My Goddess! they belong to their respective owners (Not me. ) Just a note before you go on. This is a Crossover with hints of AU.

Arashi studied the young boy's aura. 'Impressive, his body energy is incredibly strong, and so is his spiritual energy, but his spiritual energy seems wild, uncontrolled, that would mean he doesn't use chakra. This kid must be like the members of the Lee Clan. Maybe I can show him how to control his spiritual energy, and maybe teach him to use his chakra.' Thought Arashi.

"Your pretty strong for someone of your age Ranma, what are you eleven?" asked Arashi a bit curious. "Actually I'm eighteen, I got this twelve year old body due to eating some magical mushrooms. That aside, I'm this strong 'cause my pops trained me since the moment I could walk." Ranma explained.

"Magical Mushrooms?" Arashi asked a bit sceptic. "You're better not knowing, 'sides it's a long story." Ranma said, dismissing the subject as if it was a common thing.

"Anyways, what brings you all the way to this village?" asked Arashi truly curious as to why someone would dare cross Jusenkyo to reach this abandoned village. "Someone told me I could find a cure for my curse in this village." Ranma said looking hopeful. "Curse? What kind of curse?" Arashi asked, almost sure of the answer. "I have a Jusenkyo curse." Ranma answered.

"Which one?" asked Arashi. 'Poor boy, to deal with a curse at such a young age, I wish I could help him.' Thought Arashi. "Nyannichuan or Spring of Drowned Girl" Ranma said. "Well, it could've been worse." Arashi said. "You could have fallen into the spring of drowned panda or spring of drowned pig."

Ranma just snickered at Arashi's comment. "You have no idea." Ranma said holding his laughter in check. "What's so funny?" Arashi asked. "Well, let's just say some people I know got the raw end of the deal in Jusenkyo." Ranma said still snickering. "And that seems funny to you?" Arashi asked a bit serious. "Don't worry, they sure deserved it, besides it's not like they despise their curses, they've all come to terms with them." He said, his tone turning sour. "Everyone except me, and it's all my damned pop's fault. He ingrained the thought that all girls are useless since I was little, and that I should be a 'man among men'. What ever that means, I don't know." Ranma said.

Ranma looked up at Arashi. "So, can you help me with my curse?" Ranma asked hopefully. Arashi looked at Ranma thinking on how he could help out the young man in front of him. 'I can't help him, the type of seal needed for that type of curse isn't my specialty. If anyone could help him, it would be Sarutobi, and even then it would be a long shot.' Thought Arashi, before coming to a decision.

"There is one way I could help you Ranma, but first I have to explain something to you." Arashi said. Seeing Ranma nod he continued. "You see Ranma, I am not from this world. I was sent here after I sealed a demon back in my world." Arashi allowed that information to sink for a couple of seconds before continuing. "In my world Ranma, unlike this world. Culture has developed differently…" Arashi then proceeded to explain how the ninja villages were the norm in his world, and how technology wasn't as advanced or as important as it was in this world. He also explained how the countries were controlled by the 'Kages' of each ninja village. "Also, I can't assure you your curse will be cured, but at least you could get control over it. That much I can promise you." Arashi explained.

"What's the catch?" Ranma asked, knowing there most probably was one. "Very good question Ranma. You see, in order for me to send you to my world I would have to use a Banishment Jutsu. A Technique that would send you to my world, BUT wouldn't allow you to come back to this world." Arashi explained.

Ranma thought about what he had just been told. "Let me get this straight, to get a cure for my curse or at least control over it, I would have to let you use this banishment jutsu on me sending me to your world. Once there I wouldn't be able to come back to my world do to the nature of the jutsu, but I'd have the opportunity to learn cool new moves, and get away from the craziness of Nerima?" Asked Ranma, a grin on his face, to which Arashi nodded.

"Although you would need to learn to control your chakra in order to be able to learn ninjutsu or genjutsu." Arashi explained. "I could help you if you want me to teach you how to control your chakra, I could even teach you a couple of ninjutsus, but that would postpone the sealing of your curse." Arashi offered.

Ranma thought about his options; in one hand he had a willing teacher, someone willing to teach him, no strings attached, on the other hand he had a possible cure for his curse. 'Possible cures have come, and gone in large amounts, but new techniques are starting to get scarse.' Ranma thought. He considered that for a second before a grin appeared in his face. "When do we start Sensei?" Ranma asked.

------------------------------

Week One:

SLAP!!!

"Oooowwwwww!!! What the heck did ya do that for?" protested Ranma as he rubbed his head where Arashi had hit him with the damned board eraser...again.

"Why do you think Ranma?" Arashi asked with irritation in his voice. "I mean, you're the one that wants to learn chakra yet you fall asleep everytime I start lecturing you on how chakra is made." Arashi said.

"Alright, alright, I'll stay awake." Ranma grumbled.

---------------------------------

Week Two:

Ranma ran, not only that but he ran for his life as barrage after barrage of shurikens, kunais, senbon needles, and other sharp objects were thrown in his direction by Arashi. 'Where does he get so many weapons from? Even Mouse didn't carry this much weapons on him.' Ranma jumper just in time to dodge a Windmill Shuriken.

'Damn, he really is serious about making sure I'm fast enough to make hand seals during battle.' He thought as he started making hand seals while he dodged another barrage of shurikens. As he finished forming his hand seals. Ranma stopped, and called out his technique.

"Water Style: Mizu Bushin no Jutsu!!"

As he called out his technique five water clones appeared around him forming a circle around him. The clones started to deflect the thrown weapons. Ranma gathered his chakra again, and started a new set of hand seals. "You won't beat me with ranged attacks alone Arashi!" Ranma called out.

Arashi continued throwing weapons at Ranma, or at least his Kage Bushin (Shadow Clones) did. The real Arashi was currently mimicking Ranma as he rushed to form his hand seals before the kid could finish his own. Both finished at the same time, except they made different hand seals at the end.

"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!!" Arashi shouted as he brought his right hand in front of his mouth forming a fist, and blew wind through it creating a huge fireball that was headed directly towards Ranma since the attack had been launched from pretty high up giving Arashi a clean shot. 'Got ya!' thought Arashi.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Missile!!" called Ranma as he looked up at Arashi. 'What? He knew were I was?' thought a surprised Arashi. 'It doesn't matter, his jutsu won't work, he doesn't have enough water nearby.' thought Arashi as he saw his fireball about to reach Ranma, who was smiling?

Moments before the fireball hit it's target, a huge geyser blew a hole in the ground right in front of Ranma rising to effectively cancel Arashi's attack, and blowing away two of Arashi's Kage Bushins.

Arashi was surprised at how Ranma had detected an underwater source, and used it to create his attack, effectively catching him off guard, while using his Mizu bushin to defend himself. If he had been the one hit by that water jutsu instead of his clones, he'd probably be embedded into a tree trunk right about now.

He turned to look at Ranma just to find him out cold on the floor, probably due to chakra depletion. Seriously impressed with the boy's improvement Arashi ordered one of his Kage bushins to pick him up, and take the boy home. He had some thinking to do.

-------------------------

Week Three:

"Ok, I've seen you can pick up almost any jutsu with only seeing it." Said Arashi. 'I swear, if I didn't know better I'd say he was an Uchiha.' Thought Arashi. "Now your problem is you don't have high chakra reserves, so you dry up quickly. To fix that I want you to practice the exercise I just taught you. The tree climbing exercise using one of these trees is sure to help you build a bigger chakra reserve. I want you to climb all the way to the top. That won't just help you build bigger chakra reserves, it will help you control your chakra a lot better." Arashi said as he tossed Ranma a kunai, which he deftly caught. "Use the kunai to mark your progress." Arashi said as he walked over to a nearby tree, and lay against it's trunk.

"Slave driver." Mumbled Ranma as he walked towards a tree to start his arduous task of walking up the huge tree. "What was that Ranma? You want another stealth training avoiding Manda?" Arashi said.

"URK. Me?! I didn't say anything! Honest!" said Ranma waving his hands before he continued his training. 'His teaching methods are worst than the Old Ghoul's.' thought Ranma as he ran up the tree several meters, before he marked his progress, and allowed himself to fall, landing on his feet.

-------------------------

Week Four:

"Damn it Ranma! Snap out of it! You can beat that thing!" shouted Arashi as he dodged another set of ki claws as Ranma-neko slashed at him. 'Ranma, I'm going to beat you up, that is, if I get out of this one.

Arashi kept dodging slashes from the berserker martial artist for several minutes. "That's it!" Arashi said as he jumped back dropping towards the forest floor from one of the highest branches, Ranma-neko not far behind him, and gaining speed. All the while as they fell Arashi concentrated on his next technique, the one that would decide this battle.

As they were about to reach the floor Ranma-neko slashed Arashi with his claws, only to have a cloud of smoke appear along with a log up in his face. Using Kawarimi no Jutsu Arashi was able to appeared above the confused Ranma-neko, and promptly slamed his open palm into the back of the boy's neck, and slamming Ranma-neko into the ground face first.

"Eight point Spirit Seal!!" Arashi cried

He jumped away just in time to avoid another attack. Just as Ranma-neko had been about to attack again, Ranma's eyeballs rolled up into his head, before falling to the ground unconscious.

Ranma had been unconscious for about two days before coming around. They had waited another day before starting to train again. Once they had started to train again they discovered that Ranma had lost his fear of cats, and that apparently the spirit of the neko-ken had been responsible for Ranma's low chakra reserves; which were pretty impressive now, allowing Ranma to create up to seven kage bushins at a time without depleting his chakra. All this had happened thanks to the seal Arashi had put on Ranma, effectively sealing the spirit of the neko-ken.

Two more weeks passed as Ranma learned how to better control his chakra. Arashi was impressed how fast the boy took to learning new abilities. Ranma always seemed ready to learn new techniques, going so far as to creating a pair of jutsus of his own.

* * *

Finally the day came when Arashi would send him to his world of origin. Ranma had offered to learn the banishment jutsu, and send Arashi back in thanks for showing him all the news techniques, even if it meant sacrificing a possible cure. Arashi had refused, thanking him for the offer, but explained that the jutsu was extremely complex, and that Ranma did not have the needed control over his chakra needed to use it.

It was a lie, Arashi knew the kid could perfectly pull it off, but it wasn't his destiny to go back there, he was here to help the young man he had trained, and now considered a friend to go to a place where he was needed.

It was early in the afternoon; currently Ranma sat in the middle of a large circle inscribed on the ground with the blood of his sensei, his pack firmly held in one hand. Arashi was currently putting the needed symbols on Ranma who had his shirt off.

Arashi put the final symbol on Ranma's back just below his neck, where a seal could be seen hidden by his pigtail. The seal was composed by eight points, five points on an outer circle, and three points on a smaller circle inside the larger one. Each point was accompanied by a kanji. The kanji represented: earth, wind, water, fire, and metal for the five outermost points; while the inner points had the kanji that represented: mind, body, and spirit.

"Ok, it's ready." Arashi said as he stepped back to study his handiwork, making sure all the symbols were in place. "Are you absolutely sure you're up to this?" Arashi asked. "Remember it's a one-way ticket."

"I'm sure Arashi-sensei." Ranma stated. "And thank you for everything, you've taught me so much." He finished.

Arashi smiled. "You won't be thanking me in a few minutes….but it was a pleasure Ranma. Now you remember what I told to do when you get there right?" Arashi asked. "Yeah, I remember." Ranma answered a bit annoyed. "Remember Ranma, ninjas are always suspicious of the unknown, and suspicion is the last thing you need if you want to be able to get your curse sealed by Sarutobi." Arashi stated, a tone of seriousness in his voice.

"Ok, here goes." Arashi said as he concentrated his chakra, and started making hand seals. It was a good five minutes before he stopped making seals, and put his hand on Ranma's back where the symbols converged.

"Special Jutsu: Soul Banishment!!" Arashi said as he concentrated his energy into the hand that was touching Ranma's back. Ranma clenched his eyes closed as he suddenly felt an intense pain, at the same time the symbols on the floor and on his body glowed with power. The pain extended all throughout his body before everything went quiet.

The pain had suddenly disappeared, as he opened his eyes he was surprised to find himself lying in the middle of a forest, a normal forest at that. It looked to be around six in the afternoon. "I guess it worked." Ranma said to himself as he put on his shirt, and hefted his pack before he started to walk looking for a place to set up camp, he'd start his journey to Konoha tomorrow.

* * *

Meanwhile Arashi stood in the middle of the room where moments before he had sent Ranma, his last student, to his world, the world of ninjas. "Godspeed Ranma." Whispered Arashi.

"Is it done?" a female voice asked. "Yes, it's done. He'll fit in just nicely there, wouldn't you say Urd?" Arashi said as he turned around to face a tall, tanned, silver haired woman with distinct marks on her face.

"Yes, he will. Now come Arashi, it's time for you to return to Asgard. Your wife and friends are waiting for you." Arashi smiled, as he walked towards Urd a pair of wings appeared on his back, a golden halo over his head. Just as he reached the Silver haired goddess they both seemed to disappeared, and with them the village seemed to disappear, until all that was left were ruins of what was once a prosperous town.

Authors Notes: Well there you have it, hope I cleared some of the questions you had from the prologue. Comments, and Flames accepted, as long as it's constructive criticism. I wanted Ranma to know at least the basics of chakra for when he needs them in the future.


	3. Chapter 2: Ranma's New Home

Disclaimer: I don't own either Ranma 1/2 or Naruto or any of their respective characters. They belong to their respective owners. I might introduce a pair of characters into the story which are of my creation, and will be used to help the plot along. Any, and all made up characters beside the ones from Ranma ½ or Naruto are mine.

Also, I'm starting a poll to see who I should pair Ranma with.

Warning: Remember this is an AU, and it is a Ranma fic, I will go into Naruto's story every once in a while, but the main character WILL be Ranma.

Chronologically speaking:

Ranmaverse: After Ranma defeated Saffron, and after the failed wedding attempt.

Naruverse: It's the year Neji, Ten Ten, and Rock Lee graduate. Naruto and the others still have one year of Ninja academy to go through

Anyways, hope you guys enjoy. Thank you all for your reviews. Now, on with the show.

Ranma is currently the same age as Naruto, but he's at Neji's power level due to the Seal Arashi put on him.

Ranma walked through the forest, currently female thanks to a small rain that had fell early in the morning. If you looked closely you could see a depressed aura floating around him.

"Damn Ryoga, his curse must be contagious. Either that or I missed my landing spot in this world." Ranma said as he walked through some thick bushes.

Ranma blink-blinked, and then blinked again. He was standing meters from the road. Following the road with his eyes he saw one way lead back towards the forest, looking the other way, Ranma's eyes grew as he saw his destination at the

'Just like Arashi described it.' He thought as he quickly backed into the bushes again, before retrieving a small thermos, and concentrated a small amount of ki into it heating the water inside heat up.

Ranma promptly doused himself with the warm water, triggering his curse. 'Ok, only one thing left to do.' He thought as he put down his pack, and opened it.

Ranma rummaged around it for a bit before retrieving a kunai holster which contained several shurikens, and senbon needles. It also contained a large combat kunai that was used for close combat.

Ranma tied the holster around his leg. He then retrieved another pouch, this one for his waist, this one contained smoke grenades, and a pair of Ranma-bombs; he had created them copying Happosai's Happo Dai Karin and adding something special to the bombs. He took off his red chinese shirt, and put on a red gi-like shirt, and on top of that he put on a black vest (Sort of like the jounin vests, only in black).

He then retrieved the most important item he needed for his plan to work, a forehead protector with the symbol for the Hidden Leaf Village. This specific item had been given to him the day Arashi had decided Ranma was ready to be a ninja.

Once dressed he retrieved one of his senbon needles from his pouch, and lightly stabbed it through one of the points that made up the seal on the back of his neck. The point he stabbed was the one with the kanji that stood for 'Body'. He felt the seal act, it burned a bit for a moment before it became dormant again. Ranma remembered when Arashi had explained the seal, and its use. This was the first step to become stronger…

----Flashback----

Ranma woke up in a cold sweat, he was panting as the telltales of the nightmare he had been having left his mind. "Where am I?" Ranma said as he looked around the room he was in finding Arashi sitting on his desk. Ranma realized he was lying on Arashi's bed. "Awake already? Took you long enough." Arashi said turning over towards Ranma. "What happened?" mumbled Ranma.

"That's what I'd like to know, you've been out cold for three days. You gave me a hell of a fight back in the forest or should I say the damned spirit in you gave me a hell of a fight back in the forest." Arashi said.

"Really? Last thing I remember was coming face to face with…Oh no, I went berserk huh?" Ranma said, comprehension dawning on him.

"You could say that, how did you acquire that technique?" Arashi inquired.

"Well, it happened…" Ranma proceeded to explain the Neko-ken. After about half an hour Arashi sat stunned. 'How could anyone make another person go through something like that? How could a father...' Arashi thought.

Arashi turned his attention to Ranma who kept scratching the back of his neck. "Damn, it's like I had an itch that simply won't go away." Ranma said as he kept scratching.

"Ranma stop scratching the back of your neck, and listen." Arashi ordered. Ranma obeyed, he stopped scratching himself, and looked at Arashi. "To beat you back in the forest I was forced to use a technique I developed some time ago. It is what we ninja call a kinjutsu or forbidden technique." He let that sink in for a moment, and started again before Ranma could interrupt. "This particular kinjutsu is a seal with eight points; five points on a large circle, and three on a smaller circumscribed circle. Each point on the large circle symbolizes an element of nature, Wind, Earth, Fire, Water, and Metal. The other three points symbolize the elements that make up a human being, Mind Body, and Spirit." Arashi said.

"I created this seal in hopes of bringing the latent power of a human to the fore. This latent power is called Kekei Genkai or Bloodline Limit. The point of this seal is to help you define the element or elements you are more akin to, but in order for your body, mind, and spirit to allow a bond to develop between you, and the element or elements more akin with you the other point come into play." Arashi explained.

"Cool, so, I'll be able to do stronger jutsus with a certain element when the seal finishes its job?" Ranma asked excitedly.

"Wait a second Ranma I'm not finished." Arashi said. "The three points on the inner circle are used to put limiters on your energy allowing the bond to form."

"There will be an order in which the seals will develop, and activate; the elemental seals will activate one after the other, once you activate the body seal. Each elemental seal should take some time to develop. Once the elemental seals are done developing you should activate the Mind seal, after that the soul seal will activate on it's self some time during the following two days. When the soul seal finishes its work your latent bloodline will emerge on its own, and you will be able to develop it freely. Be careful how you use the seal Ranma. Know that once the seal is finished you will gain power over the neko-ken." Arashi finished his explanation.

----End of Flashback----

Ranma shook himself out of his ponderings, and continued getting ready. He tied the forehead protector around his neck, leaving it a bit loose (Just like Hinata). Ranma took off his customary kung-fu slippers, and put on the open-toed boots Arashi had given him along with a pair of shin guards. Ranma inspected himself for a moment, making sure everything was in order before he put away all of his belongings.

Ranma stood up, hefted his pack, and suddenly had to dodge a kunai as it flew past where his head had been moments later. As he dodged he saw a kid with grey hair jump over him, while throwing a kunai to intercept another kunai headed towards him.

The kid's trajectory took him over the bushes, and out onto the road. Moments later a grey haired girl came running from where the first kunai had come. "Come back here you, and say that to my face baka!" the girl shouted before jumping out onto the road, completely ignoring Ranma. Sounds of a fight came from the direction the other side of the bushes.

"Weird." Ranma stated. He was about to go out onto the road when the kid flew back through the bushes, and hit a nearby tree.

"Ouch!! What did you do that for Kaijuu-nee-chan?!" called out the boy.

"WHAT did you call me?!" shouted the girl as she came through the bushes, a red aura around her body. The girl stomped towards the cowering boy. She was about to smash the kid, but was saved the pain as Ranma decided he had had enough of being ignored.

"Who are you two?" asked Ranma as he looked at them, memories of Nerima coming to mind before being squashed, and thrown to the darkest corner of his mind.

"Huh?!" came the smart reply as both kids turned to see him, the aura the girl had been exuding had disappeared.

Ranma sighed. "I asked who you guys were." Ranma repeated as he studied the pair as they stood up.

The girl had grey hair that fell loosely to just above her shoulders; she had slightly tanned skin, and was the same height as him. She wore a pair of baggy blue pants, a white tank top, and a blue jacket; she was using a forehead protector with the symbol of the Hidden Cloud Village as a belt to hold the baggy pants in place.

The boy also had grey hair, but his was short, and a bit spiked up. He had pale white skin; he also wore a pair of baggy pants, but colored grey, he wore a black T-shirt, and long gauntlets that reached his elbows. Under his gauntlets you could see he had bandages wrapping his arms, but the curious thing is you could see several lines of what looked to be kanji written on them. He wore his forehead protector around his head, and almost completely covering his eyes. The weirdest thing about the kid was that he wore a black bandana around his head, underneath his forehead protector effectively covering his eyes, and effectively blinding him. They both had their kunai holsters around the right leg, and wore the standard ninja boots, and shin guards.

"My name is Leiko, and this baka's name is…" the girl said before being cut off. "Jou" said the boy nervously looking at his sister. "Sure it is Juroujin." Deadpanned Leiko. "Neesan! You promised you wouldn't call me by my real name unless necessary!" whined Jou. "Well, that's what you get for calling me a Kaijuu" replied Leiko as she huffed, and turned towards Ranma.

"Don't mind my brother, he's been testy recently. Anyways, what's YOUR name?" asked Leiko as she studied the boy, before she caught sight of the forehead protector tied around Ranma's neck.

"Ranma Saotome" he answered simply.

"So, you're from the leaf?" asked Jou hopefully. "Well, actually I'm headed there to register as a ninja; I just arrived from Wave country. My sensei finished training me recently, and gave me Genin rank." Ranma narrated his cover story. 'Please let them buy it! Please!' thought Ranma.

"Cool, we're here for the same reasons." Jou said. "We just arrived from Lightning country." He explained.

Ranma's eyes narrowed. "Hidden Cloud? What business do two genins from Lightning country have here in Konoha?" Asked Ranma as he changed his stance to his usual battle stance.

The girl frowned. 'This kid must be extremely skilled to use a fighting style like that.' Leiko thought. "Don't worry, we're here on an official peace mission." She said waving her hands in front of her. "We have an appointment with the Hokage later today." Jou finished.

Ranma relaxed. "Sorry, about the reaction, my sensei told me about the war against Hidden Rock, and Hidden Cloud, and her first hand experiences." Ranma said still using his cover story.

The siblings winced. "Yeah, those times were rough for our country. Mom used to say the Sandaime Raikage had been unprepared to take up the charge as Kage. Unlike the Yondaime Raikage who wants to patch up the relationships with Hidden Leaf. Hidden Cloud is barely starting to recover from the repercussions of the war." Leiko said. "Yeah, Sandaime Hokage was a real jerk." Jou said.

SLAP!!! "Ooowwww! What the heck, why'd you hit me Leiko?!" Jou whined rubbing his head where Leiko had hit him with a large paper fan she had pulled out of thin air, and had made it disappear just as quickly.

"You should know better than to speak like that about Sandaime Hokage. Even though he made a mistake going to war, doesn't mean he was a bad person or that he doesn't deserve our respect. He did a lot of good things too; unfortunately most people just see the negative side of things." In Konoha a blonde haired kid sneezed, and looked around him. 'Someone must be talking about me.' He thought before returning his attention back to the bowl of ramen in front of him, promptly making it disappear.

Ranma nodded at Leiko's words. 'She's right about that.' He thought, memories of several incidents like that surfacing, before he pushed the memory away.

"Well, since we're going the same way, why don't we get a move on? We're still a few minutes away from Konohagakure. We can get to know each other better on the way." Ranma offered already starting to like the siblings. Their antics proving to be amusing.

The three started walking up the road talking about their childhood. Ranma himself edited most of his story, things like the neko-ken, Jusenkyo, instead adding some comments about his time training.

About twenty minutes later they stood at the main gates of Konoha. A guard had stopped them, and had interrogated them about what their business was in Konoha. The three had explained to the guard what they had come to do.

They had had to wait for a while, before being escorted by five ANBU ninjas all the way to the Hokage Tower.

As they reached their destiny the three were separated as Ranma was ushered into the Hokage's office first, while Leiko and Jou were asked to leave all their weapons, before being allowed to see the Hokage.

Inside the Hokage's office Ranma stood a good ten feet from where Sarutobi sat behind a large desk, beside him sat a girl about eighteen, she was dressed in a pair of black shorts, and a fishnet shirt both of which hugged her figure, and did little to hide her assets. She also had a light brow trench coat on. Her dark hair was tied in a bundle on the back of her hair, three spikes of hair pointing upwards from behind, her bangs framing her face nicely. She wore the forehead protector in its right place. Assorted papers were strewn on the desk in front of them.

"Ah! Ranma is it? Welcome to Konoha. I'd like you to meet Mitarashi Anko; she is helping me with certain matters at the moment, and will be accompanying us for this meeting." Sarutobi said, while Anko only nodded looking bored.

"My guards inform me you said you studied under Rin, one of our best kunoichis. She was always really helpful." Sarutobi stated what he had been told by his guards. He also seemed to get a reaction from Anko as she stopped idly picking her ear with her pinky finger, and started paying attention to the conversation going on.

'Damn, why did I get stuck with a desk job today of all days, when there was '

Ranma merely nodded. "Good, how is Rin anyways? Did she come with you?" Sarutobi inquired. "She is doing fine Hokage-sama; unfortunately Rin-sensei couldn't come with me. She says she isn't ready to come back yet." Ranma said still hoping his cover story would hold.

"A shame she couldn't join us. She was a fine girl." Sarutobi said as he studied the boy in front of him. 'He's strong, but I feel he's hiding some of his power.' Arashi thought to himself.

"So, come to register as a Konoha ninja have you?" Sarutobi said. "Well, you'll have to be tested before we can register you as an official genin. We also have a small set back since the students that graduated this year have already been drafted into their teams. That means you'll probably have to wait until the next year students graduate. In order for us to put you in a team. In the meanwhile you could get more training from any of the academy teachers. If an opportunity comes up, and we can put you in a team you will be informed." Sarutobi informed Ranma as he looked through several scrolls.

"Give this to the secretary down in the lobby, she will give you the keys, and directions to the apartment we shall assign to you." Sarutobi said dismissing Ranma as he put several scrolls aside, and grabbed another scroll. Ranma recognized it as the scroll Leiko, and Jou had been carrying, and were going to present to the Hokage.

As Ranma exited the office Leiko and Jou were ushered into the office still guarded by the ANBU guards. No words were traded as the siblings didn't even turn to look at him; Leiko had a serious expression in her face, while Jou's expression was harder to read since half his face was covered by his blinker.

Ranma proceeded to take the elevator down to the lobby, and promptly exited the building after acquiring the keys to his new apartment. All the while he thought about how the siblings were doing. 'Hope they're alright.' Ranma thought.

Later that day…

Ranma looked a bit tired, as he finally reached a small three story apartment building with an exterior stair well for the higher apartments. 'Damn, I really have to get to know this city better.' He thought before looking at the address the secretary had given him. Aparently his apartment was on the third floor. Ranma shrugged, and jumped up to the railing of the walkway on the third floor before dropping to the walkway.

Ranma walked down the corridor. "Room 301...302...303...ah here we are apartment 304." He mumbled as he reached his new home. He opened the apartment with the key he had been given. He went in he closed the door behind him. Ranma proceeded to explore the small apartment. It consisted of one bedroom, a small living room, a bathroom, and a small kitchenette/dining room.

He looked around the apartment. 'Finally he had a place to call his own…his home.' Ranma thought, a smile on his face. 'Hopefully this time it will last longer than at the Tendo's.' Ranma thought.

Ranma proceeded to unpack certain things he would need in his new home, while leaving the essential things he would need to make a quick getaway if his cover story was blow, and he needed to escape. After all Arashi had warned him that lying to a ninja was dangerous. Ranma knew they'd probably look into his cover story. It was because of that that he kept certain items from his past hidden inside his pack using a revised version of Mouse's Hidden Weapons Technique. He had hidden many of his personal training scrolls, among them his father's forbidden techniques, some scrolls he had obtained from the Old Ghoul, and some other scrolls he had stolen from Happosai.

The only scrolls he didn't hide were the ones Arashi had given him, which were mostly basic ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu techniques. He'd already mastered the ninjutsu, and some of the genjutsu techniques, but he had yet to try any of the taijutsu techniques since he knew plenty of hand to hand fighting styles. The other genjutsu techniques were really hard, and he didn't really get the hang of genjutsu in general. He preferred ninjutsu and taijutsu since they were a lot more useful for a direct confrontation.

A while later…

Ranma exited his apartment deciding to explore the town for a bit. He headed towards where he felt a large amount of energy signatures close to each other. After a while of walking he reached the building he felt the energy coming from.

Ranma guessed this was the ninja academy Arashi told him about. He decided to go in, and take a peek. Ranma walked through the door, and promptly bumped into another kid about his age. The kid wore black shorts, and boots, a white short sleeved shirt. He wore the standard forehead protector around his head, and bandages around his left arm, and right leg. On top of the bandages of his right leg he wore his kunai holster. The weirdest thing about the kid was his pupil less eyes.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to r..." Ranma started to say. But he was cut off by the other kid. "Get out of my way kid." Neji Hyuuga said as he pushed Ranma aside by the shoulder…or that was what he intended to do, but he never got to touch Ranma's shoulder, as Ranma grabbed Neji's hand by the wrist. "I said I was sorry, you don't need to be rude about it." Ranma said letting go of the kid.

Neji pulled his arm back. 'Who is this kid, he's really strong. I don't recall seeing him around before.' Thought Neji as he studied Ranma, as he did he noticed the forehead protector tied around Ranma's arm. "I've never seen you around here, what's your name?" Neji demanded. "It's curtsy to say your name first." Ranma said.

"Very well, my name is Hyuuga Neji." He said as he eyed Ranma. 'How can this kid be a ninja being as young as he is, especially if I'm sure he's never attended the academy, I would've remembered him.' Neji thought to himself. "My name's Ranma Saotome and you haven't seen me since I just got into town today." Ranma replied as he excused himself, and kept walking leaving Neji to his thoughts.

Unseen by Ranma, Neji used his Byakugan to study him as he left. Neji's eyes narrowed as he saw the seal on Ranma's back, memorizing the pattern, he then looked at Ranma's chakra coils to have an idea how strong this kid was.

Neji was promptly surprised to see something he'd only seen once before in a ninja. Stunted chakra coils, but what surprised him the most was the amount of chakra this kid possessed.

'For someone with stunted chakra coils, he has too much chakra. Theoretically that's impossible. Does it have anything to do with that seal on the back of his head?' Neji thought surprised as he started walking away intent on consulting his new sensei.

Meanwhile Ranma walked through the academy hallways on the second floor. He noticed a half closed door, and peeked in. He saw about twenty seven students sitting down, while listening at a teacher drone on, and on about how to control their chakra, and how to gain more chakra by coiling their chakra pathways.

Ranma snorted. "Yeah right, like that's gonna help, they'll take for ever to develop their chakra." Ranma mumbled.

"Maybe you can explain it better then?" asked a voice from behind him. As Ranma looked behind him he was surprised to see the red eyed female instructor that had been giving the class moments later. 'Genjutsu? I didn't even feel her cast it, she must be really good. If I survive this, I'll ask her to teach me.' Ranma thought as he tried to salvage the situation.

"Hey, umm, I didn't mean your explanation was bad or anything, it's just that what you're teaching them is useless." Ranma's foot in mouth syndrome jump started, effectively dooming him to a quick death.

Kurenai Yuhi had been imparting a simple lesson on chakra when she had heard the remark come from the door to her classroom. She had quickly set up a genjutsu, making it seem as she was still explaining how to coil chakra, when in the meantime she walked over to the door, opened it, and stepped behind the person that had interrupted her class.

To her surprise it was a genin, if she was correct, one she had never seen before at that.

Kurenai narrowed her eyes at the kid's comment about her lesson being useless. "Why you…" Kurenai was about to teach this kid a lesson when a she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning around she saw it was Anko. "Hiya Kurenai thanks for finding the brat for me." She said before grabbing Ranma's wrist, and dragging him away from a fuming Kurenai who returned to her classroom.

"You should be thanking me kid. If it weren't for me you'd be experiencing one of the most painful genjutsu Kurenai has. If there is something she hates it's someone insulting her teaching methods." Anko explained as she dragged Ranma down towards the academy's training grounds.

As they got there Ranma saw the Hokage waiting for them along with the Neji, and three other persons, a girl about his age, maybe a year older. She wore a pair of black pants, a pink chinese style sleeveless shirt, beside the standard ninja equipment, all in their rightful places. She had her black hair done up in two buns on the back of her hair.

Next to her was a boy wearing a green jumpsuit, leg warmers, and bandages around his arms. He also wore his forehead protector as a belt. His black hair was cut in a bowl cut. Finally there was a man dressed in pretty much the same outfit as the kid, but he had a jounin vest on. He also wore his forehead protector as a belt.

"Ah, Ranma nice of you to join us." Sarutobi said as he turned towards Anko, and himself. It seemed they had been having a rather animated discussion. The kid in the green jumpsuit seemed to be pretty exited.

"We almost lost the maggot. He apparently offended Kurenai saying something about her lesson. If I hadn't saved him he'd be dead by now." Anko said as she let go of Ranma's wrist.

"I would've been just fine without your help, thank you." Ranma told Anko, before he turned to the Hokage, Anko just muttered something about ungrateful kids. "So, what can I do for you Hokage-sama?" Ranma asked politely.

"You see Ranma; I decided to test you today, while helping out with Might Gai's team in their first test with their new sensei." Sarutobi explained.

"So, what do I have ta do?" Ranma inquired.

"Well you see Ranma; it had to do with these two bells…" Gai said as he started to explain how Ranma would carry the two small bells around his waist, and he needed to avoid letting Rock Lee, Ten Ten, and Neji acquiring one of the bells from him.

"I want to remind you Ranma, not to hold back, since we need to gauge your abilities. Also Gai's team will go all out on you. Everything goes, except killing blows." Sarutobi said.

"Ok, ready?" Gai asked, seeing Ranma nod, he turned to his students who also nodded. "GO!" Gai shouted.

Immediately Ranma had to avoid a barrage of senbon needles that came towards him from Ten Ten. More importantly, avoid the ones that were aimed at the strings of the bells with the purpose of cutting them.

Moments later Rock Lee was on top of him as he flew through the air dishing out several round houses to his chest, and head which Ranma avoided by jumping over Rock Lee, and using Lee's head as a spring board to jump over Ten Ten, and Neji's location.

While he flew through the air, Ranma threw several shurikens to intercept the ones thrown at him by Ten Ten. Before he landed though Ranma started forming hand seals at a fast rate.

Neji's eyes widened at seeing this. 'How can he be preparing to use a ninjutsu or a genjutsu if he has stunted chakra coils?' Neji thought as he started moving to intercept Ranma.

Just as Ranma landed he formed the last seal he needed, but had to quickly avoid a palm strike to the chest by Neji. Ranma did this by leaning backwards, while he called out his technique.

"Wind Style: Ethereal Clone Jutsu!!" Ranma shouted. Moments later two clones seemed to shimmer into existence beside Ranma. One of the clones grabbed Neji by the wrist, giving Ranma enough time to back away a few paces.

'Wind Clones?' the thought went through several people's mind at the same time.

Neji recovered from his surprise, mad at being stopped by a simple clone technique Neji used his other hand to punch at the clone's outstretched arm only to have his palm go through the clone's arm. The clone seemed to shimmer from the contact, before stepping back, and becoming completely solid once more.

"That's it! Byakugan!" Neji exclaimed, veins bulging around his eyes as he activated his kekei genkai.

Ranma and his clones stepped back for a moment. Ranma analyzed what he had just seen so far from his opponents.

Rock Lee seemed pretty good at taijutsu,, and would probably match him punch for punch, kick for kick. Ten Ten had a damn good aim; he'd be hard pressed to dodge her weapons. Neji on the other hand seemed to be the calm, and calculating type, the strike Neji had sent his was would have probably hurt a lot.

Ranma's brain assessed the situation, and quickly came up with a plan. One of Ranma's clones ran towards Ten Ten, shimmering as several thrown weapon went through it, but the clone kept its cohesion long enough to grab the girl by her wrists, and put her in a head lock.

The other clone took up a defensive stance facing Neji, while Ranma himself turned towards Rock Lee who was apparently waiting for his opening.

Ranma signaled Lee to come at him, Lee needed no further encouragement as he flew at Ranma with another roundhouse combo, only this time Ranma blocked the combo, standing his ground. Lee followed up with a leg sweep, which Ranma jumped, and aimed a kick at Lee's outstretched leg. Ranma had to stop his attack in order to block the punch that Lee threw to counter. Ranma though couldn't block the kick that sent him airborne.

Meanwhile Neji fumed as the clone avoided all of his hits yet did not allow him to attack the real Ranma who was trading blows with Lee. Behind him Ten Ten struggled to get free as Ranma's other clone held her in a lock, her feet were barely touching the floor, not allowing her to get leverage to get free.

Neji smiled as he saw the clones lose cohesion, and disappear. He saw Ranma had been kicked by Rock Lee, and was currently airborne. Rock Lee appeared underneath Ranma using 'Shadow Dance' the bandages on both his arms were loose.

Gai looked pale, he hadn't expected Lee to go this far. He was about to stop the fight, but Sarutobi stopped him. "No Gai, allow them to continue." Sarutobi said, not taking his sight from the battle.

'Show me Ranma, the true extent of one of Arashi's students.' Sarutobi thought to himself.

Author's Notes: BWAHAHAHAHA! A cliffhanger, aren't I a stinker? Hope you liked it. Next Chapter is already on the making. Comments and Flames are welcome as long as they are constructive criticism. Expect the next chapter to appear in one or two days. Please review, and thank you all for reading.


	4. Chapter 3: Finally Genins

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½ or Naruto. Leiko and Joushiro (Jou) are characters of my creation, and belong to me. This document is written merely for entertainment purposes, and no financial gain comes from it, yada, yada, yada…

Note: In this universe Guy started training Lee a lot sooner, but only taught him taijutsu, no special moves. On another note, I want to make it clear that Ranma will NOT have the Sharingan. Now on with the story.

* * *

Ranma was thinking fast, the hit Lee had just given him in the chin had shocked him. 'My ki reserves are really low. I should have been able to block or dodge that blow, but my reflexes are too slow without boosting myself with ki. It must be the body seal taking its toll on me.' Ranma thought as he twisted his body out of the way, and changed his trajectory just in time to see Lee appear just below of where Ranma would have been two seconds later.

'At least my specialty in airborne fighting is still useful here.' Thought Ranma as he used a small amount of ki to keep himself in the air a bit longer. This gave him time to form a strategy.

Just as he touched the ground he had to dodge a new barrage of throwing items from Ten Ten while he dodged several of Neji's strikes which was no easy feat, this was punctuated by several cuts on Ranma's skin, and clothing. The cuts were made by Ten Ten's weapons, which Ranma considered less dangerous than Neji's palm strikes. He noticed Lee was getting ready to attack again.

Ranma then turned the tables as he grabbed a couple of Ten Ten's shurikens out of the air while dodging the rest, and sent them back her way, this forced Ten Ten to dodge. That gave Ranma time to concentrate all his attention on Neji.

Ranma started to use Tai Chi Quan, and what he had so-far observed of Neji's style to parry Neji's blows, and get some blows in himself. They seemed to be at the same level. Neji kept improvising, keeping up with Ranma who changed styles a couple of times to try, and throw Neji of balance. Both fighters started to speed up in their blows, until they both stopped holding back, preparing to end the battle. Neji charged a large amount of chakra into his palm, while Ranma charged his with ki, as they both aimed at an opening in their opponent's defense.

"That's enough!" Sarutobi said as Gai appeared between both fighters, and grabbed their wrists, parrying both blows so they wouldn't connect.

On the sidelines Lee, and Ten Ten stood surprised at how someone had matched Neji blow for blow.

"I believe this test is going nowhere, wouldn't you say Gai?" Sarutobi asked. Not waiting for an answer he continued. "I am impressed at how skilled all of you are. Now Gai, I believe your team should take a rest. Ranma, I want you to come with me, I want to discuss some matters with you." Sarutobi said as he studied the boy. "But first you should get those cuts cleaned, and bandaged." He started to say, but then noticed, most of Ranma's cuts were healing at an accelerated rate, leaving only the smaller cuts unhealed.

"Well if you will excuse us. We shall take our leave." Sarutobi said as he walked away followed by Ranma, and Anko.

"Who is that kid?" Ten Ten said. "If I remember correctly he wasn't in the academy." She asked Guy. "Yes sensei, I don't remember seeing him in the academy either." Lee said excited at seeing another possible rival. Neji just kept quiet thinking back to the fight. 'He seemed to be holding back on me, but not consciously, maybe it has to do with that seal I saw in his neck.' Neji thought as he waited for Guy do allow them to leave.

"Well team, he's a new genin who just came to the village today. He studied under a Jounin that specializes in the medical area, her name's Rin." Guy said as he thought about he had seen in the fight.

'This kid was boosting himself without using his chakra. I may be wrong, but if he was using some kind of energy that wasn't chakra, maybe I can get him to teach Lee how to use it.' A smile appeared on his face. 'Things might just get interesting from now on.' He thought as he turned to face his team. "Ok team. Listen up! I want you here fresh, and early tomorrow morning ready for a training trip!" Guy said.

"Dismissed." Guy said before he walked away, he needed to get the training gear ready.

"YES!!!" Cried Lee as he started jumping up, and down. Ten Ten just sighed seeing the excited kid's antics. Neji just 'hmphed' and walked away.

* * *

Meanwhile in the hokage's office. Sarutobi sat in his chair smoking his pipe, while he thought about his next words. Across from him, at the other side of the desk sat Ranma. Anko had been ordered to wait outside by Sarutobi.

"Now Ranma, I need to talk to you about some information I received from you." Sarutobi said as he took another puff from his pipe. "Alright." Ranma said a bit nervous at Sarutobi's stare. 'Damn, was my cover blown?' Ranma thought.

"Alright. Forgive me for being blunt, but what is the purpose of the seal on the back of your neck?" Sarutobi asked. "Well…." Ranma started.

"Please Ranma; I already know you did not study under Rin. She could not have taught you half of the moves you used today. Besides…" Sarutobi paused, blowing some smoke from his mouth, before taking another puff from his pipe. "You're a lousy liar." Sarutobi finished with a chuckle.

Ranma face faulted. "Was it that noticeable?" Ranma asked. Sarutobi only nodded. "Now about the seal…" Sarutobi stated.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told ya." Ranma said.

"Oh, it's not hard to figure out who gave it to you since I developed the basics for that seal a long time ago. I just want to confirm my suspicions." Sarutobi said as he put out his pipe on a small ash tray.

"Alright, just remember I told ya wouldn't believe me." Ranma paused a moment. "His name was Arashi Uzumaki. He told me you also knew him as…"

"Yondaime." Sarutobi cut Ranma off. "But how is this possible? I saw him die thirteen years ago. After he sacrificed himself to seal the Kiyubi No Kitsune." Sarutobi said.

"Well he seemed pretty alive to me." Ranma said. "What's a Kiyubi No Kitsune?" Ranma asked curious.

"It was the Nine-tailed Fox Demon that attacked this village thirteen years ago, and was defeated, and sealed by Yondaime." Sarutobi explained, leaving out t the fact that Naruto was the container of the Kiyubi. "But that's another matter. Ranma, where did you meet Yondaime?" The hokage asked a bit hopeful.

In the next two hours Ranma proceeded to relate his life story to the Hokage. Of course he edited some of the embarrassing parts. 'No body needs to know those moments.' Ranma thought.

"You do understand it's hard to believe your story right?" Sarutobi asked. "I know, if you want I'll just pack up my stuff, and leave town." Ranma said dejectedly.

"You did not leave me finish Ranma." Sarutobi said seriously. "Even though your story IS incredible. There is one thing that can confirm it, and that is the seal on the back of your neck." Sarutobi stated. "I can confirm your story that way, that's if you would allow me to take a closer look at it of course." Sarutobi said.

Ranma nodded his consent. Sarutobi stood, and walked over to where Ranma sat, and stood behind him. Ranma reached behind him, and pulled his long pigtail out of the way, allowing the old man to look at the seal.

'My god Yondaime, how did you come up with such a simple seal to do what many would kill to have?' Sarutobi said as he looked at the seal that would give it's bearer a Kekei Genkai best suited to his natural abilities.

"I've seen what I needed Ranma." Sarutobi said as he took a seat in his chair once more.

"That is indeed the seal I helped create, so I believe you Ranma. Hence, I now grant you the rank of genin of the Hidden Village of the Leaf." Sarutobi said.

"Thank you very much Hokage-sama"

"You are welcome Ranma. Now, there is one issue I that is going to be a problem. You don't really know some of the basics how a ninja works with his team and other matters like that. So even though you are a genin you will have to assist to one year of ninja academy classes." Sarutobi explained.

"Do I really have ta go to school?" Ranma whined. "I mean, I'm already at Genin level, you just said so." Ranma said.

"That is not the only reason. You will also be assigned a team so you can start training with each other during the school year. They are in a similar situation to yours right now. In fact you already know them." Sarutobi said a smile on his face. "I do?" Ranma asked. "I believe you met the two siblings from Hidden Cloud Village?" He asked. "Those two are going to be my team mates?" Ranma asked.

"Yes, they came here to study at our academy as a Peace Offering, and show of good will. You see they are the kids of the Yondaime Raikage." Sarutobi said, remembering the conversation he had with both kids.

* * *

**Flashback**

"Good day Ambassadors of Hidden Cloud. My name is Sarutobi; I am the Sandaime Hokage of Leaf Village. What can I do for you?" Sarutobi said politely.

"Good day Hokage-Sama." They both said bowing politely. "My name is Leiko, and this is my brother Joushiro. We bring greetings from the Yondaime Raikage of Hidden Cloud Village." Leiko said as Jou took a step forward, knelt, and presented a scroll with the seal of the Raikage to Sarutobi.

Sarutobi looked at both kids, and then at the ANBU member that had accompanied the kids into the office. The ANBU member nodded almost imperceptibly. Sarutobi then grabbed the scroll, and opened it.

The scroll had a long letter signed, and sealed by the Raikage explaining his intentions in sending his son, and daughter as a peace offering, and show of good will. Sarutobi smiled. 'It's about time we patched up things with Hidden Cloud.' Sarutobi thought.

"I was also instructed to warn you Hokage-Sama. The Akatsuki are restless, they have been collecting the Tailed Demons. We came here to ask your help with the matter…" Jou said as he stood up, and stood beside his sister, a silent message passing between the kids, and the Hokage.

"I see…this is very troubling news. I will look into it." Sarutobi said. "These matters aside, I will accept your father's offer. I hope you both enjoy your stay here in Konoha." Sarutobi said smiling. "You will of course need to assist to the last year of academy here, even though you're already genins. That will help you get accustomed to our methods." Sarutobi said. "I will arrange housing for you both, I'm sure you must be tired from the long trip. Now if you will excuse me, I have to get back to work." Sarutobi said bowing to them, before he walked towards his desk.

**End Flashback**

* * *

"Hokage-Sama, I wish to ask you for help regarding my curse." Ranma said hopefully. "Ah yes, about that. I can't give you a cure." Sarutobi said. Ranma sighed. "Figures, every time I think I have a cure it slips through my fingers." Ranma said depressed.

"You should really hear everything others have to say first before you draw conclusions Ranma. You are starting to sound like that Akane girl you told me about. I meant to say, I cannot offer you a cure, but I can offer you the possibility of a control. I'll need to study some scrolls in order to get ready for the procedure, but I'll most probably be ready in about four days." Sarutobi said a smile on his face.

"You mean I will be able to control when I change right?" Ranma asked a huge hopeful smile on his face.

"Yes, although I'm not sure how I'll be able to change the trigger or what I'll be able to change it to yet." Sarutobi said. "Now I have to ask you to leave Ranma, I have other matters to attend to for the day. I'll see you in four days, come by in the afternoon." Sarutobi said as he dismissed the young martial artist. Ranma nodded, and soon he was leaving the hokage's tower.

* * *

He was walking home when he noticed the smell. "Damn, what smells?" He mumbled to himself as he smelled his shirt, and promptly gagged. "Apparently I do…" Ranma thought about going home, and forego the shower, but decided against it.

Thus minutes later found Ranma standing in front of a bathhouse with hot springs he had seen about three blocks from his apartment.

Ranma walked in, and paid the fee with some money Sarutobi had given him after finding out Ranma had no currency in this world. He headed into the men's locker room, and put his things away. He then exited the locker room, and entered the men's side of the baths. He saw it was pretty empty, except for a couple of other men or kids around his age.

Ranma thanked the kami as he saw a lone corner, and headed over to wash up. Ranma took the precaution of heating the water in the bucket with his ki, just enough to not trigger his curse. He then dumped the water over himself, and proceeded to clean up. After finishing that he headed over to the hot spring. He was relieved that no incident with cold water had passed.

He relaxed for almost an hour. Ranma then decided it was getting late, and headed out of the baths. He was already changed, and leaving the bath house when he bumped into someone.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Ranma said quickly not looking up at who he had bumped into.

"Hey brat, whatcha doing here?" the person asked.

'Wait a minute, I know that voice.' Ranma thought. He looked up only to find Anko looking down on him. "Oh, it's just the weird chick." Ranma said off handedly, his previous worry gone. "I was just taking a bath, what else would I be doing at a BATH house?" Ranma deadpanned as he started to walk away.

"Why you little brat." Anko said as she threw a shuriken at Ranma, intent on hitting him on the butt. Ranma just sidestepped in time to dodge. He then turned around, and blew a Raspberry at Anko. "Better luck next time Uncute Tomboy!" he said before he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"I'll get you for that comment you little brat!" she shouted as she saw him disappear into the crowded street. She didn't pursue the kid. Instead she planned on her payback for the kid's comment.

Anko surprised by the kid though. He was probably one of the only persons to not run away from her. 'Probably because he doesn't know me that well…Yet.' Anko said.

'Although I really wish he has a brother, he's probably going to grow up to be a stud.' She thought as she walked into the hot spring. 'Ah well, one can only wish.' she thought to herself.

* * *

Ranma knocked on the door to the hokage's personal study room. This was the place the hokage's secretary had instructed him to come. "Come in Ranma." The hokage's voice came from inside.

Ranma opened the door, and entered the room, closing the door as he did. What he saw amazed him. There were scrolls upon scrolls in here. Shelves full of them. In the middle of the room Sarutobi stood waiting. Around him written on the floor was a very intricate looking pattern.

"Good day Ranma, are you ready?" Sarutobi asked to which Ranma nodded. "Very well then. I need you to take off your shirt, and stand in the center of this circle. I will need to write certain symbols on your chest, and back." He explained.

"Alright." Ranma said as he did as indicated. "Where will you place the seal? What will the trigger be?" Ranma asked.

"The seal I will place on you is different to the one you have on your neck. This seal will appear on the back of your right shoulder, but it will only be visible when it is activated. About the trigger, that's a bit harder to explain. You see, this seal is probably unique in it's kind since it deals with mystical forces. I have made everything in my power to change the trigger so that you can willingly change, but it will need you to use a considerable amount of chakra. There is a small catch though." Sarutobi said hesitantly.

"What is it?" Ranma asked. "You will need to change into a girl every so often, for a day and a half at least; this is due to the unpredictable forces of the magic of your curse. If you don't, then the curse will forcefully activate, and in the worst case it could break the seal, and block the trigger leaving you in female form." Sarutobi explained.

"So in other words I will still have to turn into a girl from time to time, but I won't have ta be afraid of cold water activating my curse again?" Ranma asked.

Sarutobi nodded. "Then what are we waiting for? Please continue with the sealing ritual." Ranma asked excitedly. In his head he was already picturing taking a cold water shower again, swimming at the beach or a lake or a river without having to worry about the curse.

Sarutobi smiled as he picked up a brush, and started to write the needed symbols on Ranma's body. Once he was finished Sarutobi checked his work, and nodded.

"Ok, it's ready. You might feel a bit of pain, due to the seal." Sarutobi warned as he stood behind Ranma.

He then started to make seals; he kept it up for nearly ten minutes, until he finally finished the last seal. Sarutobi then place his hand on the back of Ranma's right shoulder.

"Body Duality Curse Seal!!" Sarutobi said in a low voice, concentrating his chakra on the boy's shoulder.

Ranma felt a strong tingling sensation, similar to the one he felt when he changed. Then he felt it, a stinging pain in his head, followed by a feeling of emptiness, as if something had been ripped out of his mind. Ranma screamed as the pain only grew.

Meanwhile the writings on the floor seemed to have come to life as they crawled up Ranma's legs, and moved towards his shoulder, the symbols on his doing the same. Once they had concentrated there they formed what looked like the black symbol representing the right side of the yin-yang, surrounded by a circle of several kanji.

As the symbol was completed, and the ritual ended, Ranma fell face first, unconcious.

* * *

Several days had passed before Ranma had woken up since falling unconscious due to the sealing ritual. He had woken up in his apartment. The new seal on the back of his right shoulder. He had tried the seal's effectivity by going taking a glass of water, and pouring it on himself. He felt a tingling sensation on his shoulder, but the expected change didn't come.

Ranma proceeded to celebrate by going to the hotspring, and taking his time washing up, before entering the hotspring itself. When Ranma made it back to his apartment and was about to close his door he heard a large crash from the apartment next door. Ranma turned in time to see Jou fly through a now open door, and stand on the railing that in itself wasn't the weird part, the weird part was to see an assortment of cooking utensils flying towards Jou.

Jou on his part dodged everything that was thrown at him while he stood on the railing. As he was starting to pat himself a frying pan flew out the door, and hit him square on the face.

Moments later a crash was heard from the first floor as Jou fell into the trash dumpster conveniently placed there. "Man, why me?" Jou thought as he started the process of cleaning himself up, and going back to his apartment.

Moments after Jou fell, an enraged Leiko walked out of the apartment she had an apron on, she was about to continue to impart righteous punishment when she noticed Ranma staring at them. "Oh, hi neighbor. How's it going?" Leiko asked cheerfully. "Want to have dinner?" she asked.

Ranma being a Saotome could never reject food, especially if it was free, delicious or all of the above. "Yea…" Ranma was cut off by a hand over his mouth.

"Don't! She'll kill you; Kami-Sama knows how many times she's tried with me! Run! Run as fast as you can!" Jou said from behind Ranma. Moments later Jou was hit over the head by a mace wielding Leiko.

"Baka, my cooking is not bad." Leiko said.

"Do you really have problems with your cooking?" Ranma asked a bit fearful at having come across another Akane.

"Of course it isn't, he just bothers me because of a small incident long time ago." Leiko said blushing at the memory.

Ranma shrugged. "I've had pretty bad cooking before. Yours can't be that bad."

Amazingly Ranma was right. Leiko's cooking was better than Ukyou's, almost on par with Kasumi's! Ranma patted his stomach as he leaned back in his chair. They were currently in Leiko, and Jou's apartment.

Jou was eating instant ramen; he had refused to eat Leiko's cooking.

"So, we're gonna be a team huh?" Leiko said as she picked up the plates, and went to wash them. "Yep, only thing is we'll have to attend the academy for a year." Ranma explained. "Who cares, we'll pass no problem." Jou said.

And so a year passed. Ranma, Leiko, and Jou attended the academy with the future rookie nine. Ranma and Shikamaru slept through class a lot, much to Iruka's annoyance. Leiko on the other hand was always attentive, graduating from the academy best of the class, second only to Sakura.

Jou practically became Naruto's unofficial prankster partner which curiously started like a prank war between the two.

* * *

At the end of the year on graduation day everyone was happy except Naruto who was sitting by himself on a swing. That was until Ranma, and his team came over. They talked to him, and cheered him on telling him they would help him to pass next year.

Naruto cheered up a bit at knowing he at least had a few friends now.

That same night though, was Naruto's encounter with Mizuki, and the supposed 'make up test'. Safe to say everything turned out alright thanks to Naruto learning the Kage Bushin No Jutsu.

* * *

Two days after the incident found Leiko, Ranma, and Jou sitting out side of Training Area 44, better known as the 'Forest of Death'. They were currently waiting for their new Jounin teacher who they had been told would meet them here today, two hours ago.

"Finally genins and our instructor is late for our first day." Jou started. "I say we call it a day." Jou said while he lay on a tree branch looking at the sky. Leiko just ignored her brother, and continued reading a book.

Ranma on the other hand was currently running through his twentieth kata. "No, we should wait for the instructor to come." Ranma said as he changed styles again, and started a new kata.

"Yeah, who knows how much trouble we'll get into if the instructor arrives, and we're not here." Leiko said.

"You would be in a hell lot of trouble." A voice said as a cloud of smoke appeared. They all waited for the smoke to clear, when it did they hoped they had taken Jou's advice, and gone home.

Standing there was Anko, beside her stood a banner hung to a pole, which was stuck to the ground. The banner itself read:

"MITARASHI ANKO"

¡¡¡INSTRUCTOR EXTRAORDINARE!!!

"What? No applause?" Anko said narrowing her eyes at the three. The three genins just stared at her. Anko had been a pain in the butt during the academy, especially since she, and Ranma were always annoying the other, practically at each other's throats (literally for Anko) all the time.

"Oh come on Bookworm, help me out here." Anko said directing her gaze at Leiko.

"Oh yeah, nicknames will get you really far Anko-sensei." Leiko deadpanned. "Yeah, it's like you got somethin' against us because we hang out with Ranma." Jou said still laying on the branch, only now he was laying sideways on it.

"Oh Alright!" Anko said. "I'll lay off the nicknames, happy?" Anko said, annoyed at getting this kind of reaction from her charges. "Now down to business. You all know that as your instructor I need to teach you basic survival stuff, yada, yada, yada." Anko said receiving nods from the three kids. "Sooo, I've already planned your first exercise, which is a week's survival test inside the Forest of Death." Anko finished explaining.

"Seven days in this forest?" Ranma asked. At Anko's nod he turned to Leiko who had put her book away, Jou jumped down moments later. The three of them formed a circle, and started talking with each other.

"What the heck?" Anko was about to ask what they were discussing, but apparently they were finished, since they broke the circle, and turned to her.

"We'll do it on one condition." Leiko said grinning. "And that would be?" Anko asked curious. Not even a second passed before Ranma appeared beside her, touched her arm, and then disappeared again. "What the…" Anko said as she turned back to see the three genin jump into the forest with a cry of. "You're it!!!!"

"HUH?!" was Anko's intelligent response. Moments later she grinned evily. 'So they wanna play tag huh? They picked the worst place to do it.' she thought as she jumped up into a tree, and started to follow the trail left by their genins.

* * *

Author's Notes: Sorry I took so long to post this chapter, I had a lot of things to do. Next chapter might take a few days just like this one. Please, vote on the pairings, I created a Forum for things like that, the URL is: and flames are welcome, as long as they are constructive criticism, if not, they will promptly be ignored. 


	5. Chapter 4: Looking Back: part 1

Disclaimer: I don't own either Ranma 1/2 or Naruto or any of their respective characters. They belong to their respective owners. I might introduce a pair of characters into the story which are of my creation, and will be used to help the plot along. Any, and all made up characters beside the ones from Ranma ½ or Naruto are mine.

Sorry I took so long in posting this chapter, but I've had A LOT of things going on that I needed taking care of (One of them being a damn writing block I couldn't get rid of ), but I'm finally back.

On another note, I expected complaints on the one year I was skipping, but bare with me, it's all part of the plot since I will be filling in things when necessary. Also, expect this chapter to be loooooonnnnngggg. I have a lot of things I'm going to be including into the story, and some are not easy to include without explaining a lot of things first.

Now on with the show, hope you all enjoy!

* * *

Three figures sped through the forest, jumping from branch to branch. The three stopped on a particularly big branch. They surveyed their surroundings, checking for their assailant.

"Any sign of her?" Jou asked surveying the ground around them. "I don't see anything." Leiko said checking the trees around them. Meanwhile Ranma had his eyes closed; he was concentrating on trying to feel if there was anyone near the three of them. "I can't feel her." Ranma said as he opened his eyes.

"She's already ahead of us, she's waiting for us about two hundred meters away, but she's still keeping her distance." Ranma said as he knelt down, and studied their surroundings.

"No wonder she's a special Jounin. She was behind us when we entered the forest, but we didn't even notice when she got ahead of us." Leiko said.

Ranma thought about their options. "If we decide to fight her head on, we'll probably lose, unless we fight as a team, which we still have a hard time doing so. We also don't know what she's capable of, yet she knows most of our abilities." Ranma commented.

"I say we split, each of us takes a different path around her location, and she won't be able to get all three of us." Jou said.

"That won't work." Leiko said. "Remember all three of us have to get to the tower in the middle of the forest to win this test or survive five days out in this forest without her catching us." Leiko explained. "I don't know about you, but I prefer we find our way to that tower, I doubt we'll be able to survive five days in this forest with her hunting us." She finished.

"Yeah, you're right." Jou said. "I guess our best chance is to come up with a plan to try, and beat her as a team."

"Team work will definitely be our best chance, and I have just the plan on how to beat her." Ranma said a grin on his face.

"Do tell." The siblings said in unison.

Ranma explained his plan on how they would defeat Anko.

* * *

Anko was currently sitting on a large rock in the middle of a clearing. She waited for her charges to show up. 'What's taking the brats so long?' Anko thought. 'I wanna get things started already. I'd thought they would take the opportunity of fighting me all-out a lot quicker, but apparently the brats are smarter than I thought. Although, if they take this long to come up with a plan they'll be toast in the real world.' Anko was about to get up, and go look for them when she snatched a pair of shurikens out of the air, said shurikens had been aimed at her neck.

She quickly cut the wires attached to the shurikens with a kunai she had been playing with.

"Leiko, come on, do you really expect me to fall for that little lightning technique of yours?" Anko said as said girl stepped out of the tree line. "Thought you could beat me by yourself? I'm hurt. It appears I'll have to teach you three not to underestimate me again." Anko said as she threw the shurikens back at Leiko.

Leiko dodged to her right, and soon found herself hard pressed to dodge the attacks from a clone created by Anko. The real Anko was still sitting on top of the rock eating.

"So, where are the two cowards you got for team mates? Are they afraid to fight lil ol' me?" Anko asked.

She was surprised to have two thin wires wrap around herself, the strings were attached to a shuriken each. Before she could react she heard Leiko's voice from behind her, while the first Leiko disappeared, in her place Ranma appeared as he dropped the illusion.

"Lightning Style: Thunder Missile Jutsu!"

Moments later two bolts of lightning struck Anko.

The fight with Ranma had stopped as they saw the two bolts of lightning hit its target. Leiko waited for the smoke that had risen from her attack, only to see Ranma engaged in battle against Anko once more, she turned towards her target only to see a pile of mud in its place. 'Earth Clone Jutsu?' Leiko thought.

Moments later she found herself in a one arm head lock, and a kunai pressed to her neck. "Give up or she's dead Ranma." Anko stated.

Ranma stopped fighting as he heard Anko's threat. Once he stopped attacking the clone disappeared. "Now where is Joushiro?" Anko asked as she surveyed the tree line for any hints of the third member of the team.

Anko failed to notice a swirling mass of shadows on the floor behind her; Jou rose out of it, and promptly pressed a kunai to the back of Anko's neck.

"For the last time, don't call me Joushiro!" Jou replied. "Now let go of Leiko." Jou ordered.

"Watch out!" Ranma called out, but it was too late. Jou felt a kunai press against his neck, another of Anko's clones behind him.

"Game Over kids, you lose." Anko said relaxing, her clone turning back into a pile of mud.

"But wasn't this supposed to be a five day survival exercise?" Ranma asked. "Actually I decided to change the schedule a bit. I have a better training regime in mind."

"I gotta give you guys credit, the strategy was very well thought, especially when you didn't know the capabilities of your opponent." Anko praised.

"Why do I feel a 'but' coming?" Jou asked.

Anko chuckled as the three genins stood near her. "Maybe because there are few things you guys could work on. First off, Ranma, your copy of Leiko needs work. Second, Leiko, your jutsu was excellent, but you stayed in place, and didn't mind your surroundings, that is why you got caught you' re also tired from expending that amount of chakra, although it's not surprising since that jutsu is jounin level. Finally Jou, your temper made you lose focus, and that stopped you from detecting the clone I had left in hiding as back up." Anko explained.

"I'm proud of you; you three did better as a team than what I expected." She said. "For now, we're done with the exercise; I'll develop a training regime with what I've seen of your abilities so far. You're dismissed until tomorrow, I want you all bright and early at the edge of the town, and don't be late. We got our first real mission coming up, and it's a Rank C mission, bring all the necessary supplies, we're going to Thunder country." Anko said.

"Rank C, It's rare for us genins to get rank C mission right of the bat." Leiko commented.

"As perceptive as ever, although you just partially answered your own question. You three aren't normal genins. You are all practically chunin material, but in order to actually have a chance in the upcoming exams you three need to better your team skills, not your individual skills. Although that's not all of it, apparently the Raikage wants to help with your training personally. Ranma will also be taught by the Raikage since your team is basically the proof that Hidden Leaf, and Hidden Cloud are having peaceful relations once more." Anko explained. "Now get going, we got lots to do before we leave tomorrow." She said before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

The three genins left the forest leaving each making plans for the evening. As the three got back to town each one of them took a different path intent on making preparations for the trip. Leiko said she wanted to go to the hot springs to relax. Jou said he had to pick up some equipment from the weapons shop for tomorrows mission.

* * *

Ranma predictably walked towards the nearest restaurant which in this case ended up being Ichiraku Ramen.

As he entered he wasn't surprised to see Naruto sitting on a stool going through his second bowl of ramen. Ranma chuckled before he took a seat. "Hey whiskers, what's up?" Ranma asked, before he ordered several bowls of ramen.

"Oh, hey Ranma! Guess what! My team finally got a good mission, we're leaving tomorrow! Believe It!" Naruto stated happily.

"That's a coincidence; my team just got a field mission too. Anyways, good luck in your mission, and remember the training we've been doing." Ranma said.

"Sure thing, I'll kick the butt of anyone who gets in my way! Believe It!" Naruto said before returning to his ramen.

Ranma started eating his own food as he thought about how a whole year had passed, he thought back to the days back at the academy where he had met his new friends. Everyone back in Nerima had treated him as nothing more than a price to be won; here, well here he was accepted, he had friends. Of course he still attracted some craziness, but heck, who doesn't like some craziness once in a while?

* * *

_**Flashback**_

Two weeks after Ranma entered the academy

Iruka walked into the classroom, and immediately sighed. 'This is going to be a long day.' He thought to himself as he saw Shikamaru and Ranma asleep in their seats. Meanwhile Naruto, who amazingly was in class on time, was currently holding a quiet conversation with Jou.

'Only the kamis know what they're up to now. After all, since they met the prank ratio around here has doubled.' Iruka thought.

Iruka then noticed something that brought a smile to his face. Leiko had taken it upon herself to help Hinata out of her shell. Amazingly Leiko had managed to help Hinata with her self-esteem problems. Hinata had started socializing more with her classmates; of course she still turned into a mumbling mess every time she tried to talk to Naruto.

Speaking of which, the kids from Hidden Cloud were different from what he expected. Leiko was extremely smart, as in Sakura smart, Jou seemed to be as smart, but he was content with fooling around, and causing "harmless" mischief.

'Harmless, yeah right. He's the first person to actually make Kurenai lose her temper while teaching here at the academy.' Iruka remembered the young genin had been saved from a world of pain by the timely appearance of Asuma. 'One would think those two would actually admit they're together after all this time.' Iruka thought before calling continuing with his class.

To say that the twins were opposites would be an understatement. Leiko was always calmed, cheerful, and genuinely seemed to like to make friends. Jou on the other hand was like a second Naruto, except he wasn't as oblivious of certain things as Naruto was.

'Although I still can't understand how he can see or know where everything is with that damned bandage covering his eyes all the time.' Iruka thought as he started his class.

Jump Forward Two Days…

The day was Saturday, meaning no classes at the academy. All was quiet that morning that is until the shrill cry of one Ranma-chan broke the peaceful morning.

"Why the heck am I a girl again?!" Ranma-chan asked herself, not remembering what the Hokage had told him about the seal needing twenty four hours to recharge itself. Of course this being Ranma, he had been so excited about getting some control over the curse he had soon forgotten that he would have to be in his cursed form at least 24 hours.

Of course his screaming hadn't gone unheard, and soon a very worried Leiko was knocking on his door, a very sleepy looking Jou at her side.

Leiko knocked on Ranma's apartment door. "Ranma? Is everything alright?" Leiko asked worriedly.

"Aw, come on Leiko, it's probably nothing, let's go back to sleep." Jou whined as he scratched his head.

"Stop being such a crybaby, Ranma could be in trouble, what if someone got into his apartment, and attacked him?" Leiko said.

"AND?! Come on Leiko, Ranma's among the strongest ninja in our class. Heck, he's considered to be Chunin level. He can take care of himself, sides, why would someone come to his apartment to attack him? It's not like he attracts trouble." Jou said. (A/N: Of course we all know he does XD, anyways back to the story.)

Meanwhile inside the apartment Ranma was currently thinking of how to hide his curse from his friends. 'I can't use Genjutsu, kami knows I suck at it, and Jou is pretty good at seeing through them. Lying is out of the question, I can't say a convincing lie not even if my life depended on it. Come on Ranma think!' Ranma told himself.

'I know!' Ranma thought moments later.

Outside Leiko was about to break down Ranma's door when it opened to reveal a redheaded girl dressed in a red silk shirt, and a pair of black pants.

"Yes? May I help you?" Ranma-chan asked.

"Of course you can. You can start by telling us who you are, and where is Ranma." Leiko said. Beside her Jou seemed to sober up a bit as he noticed something peculiar about the girl that had opened the door.

"My name is Ranko Saotome, Ranma's sister, as for Ranma, he had to, umm, go see the hokage, yeah, that's it, heh, heh. Bye." Ranko said as she pushed the door closed, only to have it stopped by a smirking Jou.

"Nice try RANMA. Mind telling us how you pulled it off?" Jou said as he pushed the door open, and walked into the apartment.

"What are you talking about you twerp, she already told us she's Ranma's sister." Leiko said a bit angry at not knowing what was happening.

"You should have noticed it by now Leiko, she has the same chakra as Ranma, not only that, her smell, and the way she carries herself is enough to know it's him. Although I don't know how he pulled out the transformation without using a Genjutsu or chakra for that matter." Jou explained. "Maybe you can enlighten us a bit Ranma." Jou said as he sat down on a nearby chair.

"Yeah, now that you mention it she does carry herself like Ranma, and her chakra is exactly the same as his... Ranma? Is that really you?" Leiko asked hesitantly.

Ranma just hung her head in defeat. "Yeah it's me. Come on in Leiko take a seat, it's a long story." Ranma explained.

During the next couple of hours Ranma narrated his/her cover story, a much edited version of it. He told his friends about the curse, and explained it was the result of a failed jutsu his father had tried on him. He told them about his travels with his father. One of such journeys had ended in him meeting his new sensei who taught him the way of the ninja; that had eventually led to him coming to Konoha to become a real ninja.

Ranma-chan explained how the hokage had partially sealed his curse. How he had to be a girl for twenty four hours to allow the seal to recharge itself again.

"That's a lot to take in." Leiko said offhandedly. "I mean how can a man be as stupid as your father?" She said amazement clear on her face.

Jou just sniggered. "At least you got the good end of the deal; I'd hate to turn into an animal or something."

Ranma-chan just smirked. 'If you only knew…' Ranma-chan thought. "Hey Jou, I've been meaning to ask you something." Ranma-chan said.

"Huh? What is it?" Jou asked.

"I was wondering about why you always have those damned bandages around your eyes." Ranma-chan said.

"Oh, that." Jou said, his voice turning serious.

"If you don't want to talk about it, it's ok." Ranma-chan said when he noticed the change in Jou's tone of voice.

"Sorry Ranma but I can't really tell you right now Sarutobi-sensei told me not to talk about it just yet. I promise I'll tell you when I can."

Jou said as he got up from his seat. "Anyways I have ta get going, I have a meeting with the Sarutobi-sensei in a while, and I gotta get ready." Jou said as he left the apartment leaving Leiko, and Ranma-chan alone.

"Soooo…you really turn into a girl…I mean…completely turn into one?" Leiko asked hesitantly.

"My body does, I'm still Ranma up here." Ranma said touching his head with on finger. "Unfortunately I have to spend the next twenty four hours as a girl. I have to allow the seal to feed off my chakra so it will recharge itself." Ranma-chan explained.

"It can't be all bad Ran-chan; if you want you can come with me, and Hinata. She asked me to help her with her training today." She offered.

"Training?" Ranma-chan said the words slowly. "When do we start?" Ranma-chan said getting up from the couch, and turning towards Leiko.

Leiko smiled, if she had learned something these last few days was that it only took the mention of martial arts training to cheer Ranma up. "I told Hinata I'd meet up with her over at training field 4 after breakfast so start getting ready, we already lost a lot of time talking." Leiko said getting up to leave. "I'll go get ready. Meet you outside in twenty minutes." She said before leaving the apartment.

((A/N: From this point forward I'll mostly refer to Ranma as Ranko while Ranma is in female form to avoid misunderstandings.))

* * *

Thirty minutes later Leiko, and Ranko (Ranma had insisted on being called Ranko while in female form to avoid trouble.) arrived at training field 4. Upon their arrival they found Hinata had already arrived, and was already waiting for them.

"Hey Hinata-chan how are you, hope I didn't make you wait too long." Leiko greeted.

"Hello Leiko-san…" Hinata greeted, but stopped when she noticed Ranko.

Leiko noticed Hinata's unasked question. "Sorry, where are my manners. Hinata, this here is Ranko. She is Ranma's sister, you know the guy who joined the academy with Jou and myself this year. I told her I was going to help you train, and she offered to help too, she's pretty good." Leiko commented.

"O-okay." Hinata said as she bowed to Ranko. "It's a pleasure to meet you Ranko-san." Hinata said.

"Please, just call me Ranko, there's no need for formalities amongst friends." Ranko said cheerfully. 'Man is she always shy?' Ranko mentally asked herself.

"Okay, now where do we start?" Ranko asked eagerly.

"Well…I-I've been trying to…better my Juuken." Hinata said hesitantly.

Leiko frowned. "You really got me there Hinata. Taijutsu isn't exactly my specialty. Ranko, can you help her?" Leiko asked.

"Sure can. Hand to hand is right up my alley of expertise. Pressure points were actually one of the things I had been studying before I came to Konoha." Ranko said. "Now, I'll have to see how much knowledge you have on pressure points, and the best way to find out is having a sparring match." Ranko said smiling.

An hour later a very tired Hinata sat down on a bench located in the observation booth for training field 4. "H…how could you beat me so easily?" Hinata said tiredly.

Ranma frowned. 'She really needs help with her self esteem. If she keeps up that attitude she can end up being a risk for herself or others in the future.' Thought Ranko. "Believe me Hinata; beating you was only easy due to my extensive knowledge, and training in taijutsu. My father started teaching me since I was able to walk." Ranko said.

Hinata only nodded taking in that piece of information. Ranko sighed. 'This is going to be tougher than I thought.' Ranko then turned serious. "Alright! Enough of berating yourself about being beaten if you keep that attitude up nothing is going to change. Are you simply going to let yourself be pushed aside when someone stronger appears or do you want others to be able to depend on you?"

Hinata seemed a bit startled about the whole speech, but then she turned towards Ranma. "C-can you really teach me to be that good?" she asked hesitantly.

"Sure can, but I can't do it alone; I need your help in order to turn you into the best damned kunoichi anyone has ever known." Ranma finished.

Hinata kept quiet for a few moments, before she smiled, and turned towards Ranma. "I'd like that Ranko-sensei." She said.

* * *

Meanwhile over at the Hyuuga estate a very heated conversation was taking place.

"How dare you request my help after what happened to my brother due to your village's ambition." Hiashi Hyuuga head of the Hyuuga clan sternly stated as he examined the eyes of the young genin from Cloud.

"Calm down Hiashi, let us hear everything the child has to say before we pass judgment over him." Sarutobi stated more than requested. 'I knew this was a bad idea, but if the kid had done this alone he'd probably be blind by now.' Sarutobi thought.

Hiashi seemed reluctant to say the least, but sat back down at the head of the conference table they were currently occupying. "Very well, I shall hear what the child has to say." Hiashi said.

Sarutobi turned towards Jou who amazingly was calm under the stare of the Hyuuga elder. At least that is what it seemed, inside Jou was extremely nervous, and wanted nothing more than to run away from the room.

"Ahem…" Jou cleared his dry throat. "As I was explaining earlier; I have come to you Hyuuga-san to ask for your help. You see, the dojutsu I posses is the result of an experiment I was subjected to without my consent approximately seven years ago. Said experiment was conducted in secret in the hopes of copying your clan's dojutsu for the benefit of Cloud Village. This experiment was carried out using a blood sample taken from one of your clan's members." Jou stopped to collect his thoughts before continuing. "I have come to you today by my own free will, and not as the ambassador of Kumogakure². I come here today to ask your help to be able to control my ability." Jou explained.

Hiashi kept quiet as he considered what he had just heard. He activated his Byakugan in order to study the young boy easily. 'His eyes are very similar to ours, but the differences are clear.' Hiashi thought as he studied the boy's eyes. 'Instead of the sclera¹ of his eyes being white, his is completely black, while his iris is still grey like ours. There are others differences, but those can only be detected by the Byakugan.' He thought.

Meanwhile Sarutobi thought back to the incident, and considered the ramifications of what this meant. 'The sample of blood must have come from Hyuuga Hinata, somehow when she was kidnapped all those years ago they managed to obtain a blood sample, and took it back to their village, but without being able to study the fully developed eyes of a Hyuuga they could not successfully copy the clan's dojutsu.' Sarutobi reasoned.

Sarutobi was about to break the silence, but he was surprised to hear Hiashi's calm voice, a far calmer voice than he expected from the proud man.

"If, and I am not saying I will, I were to help you, what is the problem with your eyes?" Hiashi inquired.

Jou who had been patiently waiting seemed to brighten up a bit, part of the tension gone from the room. "Well, you see Hyuuga-sama; the problem is I can't actually stop my ability to see through certain things." Jou stated.

"The penetrating ability, so that is why you wear those bandages with a seal around your eyes?" Hiashi stated more than asked.

"Yes sir, my father created the seal to limit the range of my ability to a few meters from my person." Jou explained. "Right now it is difficult for me to control my ability; this makes it difficult to concentrate on other things sometimes. I also have trouble sleeping without the bandages on since the bandages give me more control." Jou stated.

"…" Hiashi kept quiet for the time being considering what to do.

"As I see it Hiashi the boy should be helped, but I will leave the decision up to you." Sarutobi stated, before turning to Jou. "Although, if you were to decline the boy's request I could help him by improving the seal on his bandages." He finished.

Hiashi sighed. "If you had come a few years earlier I would have probably turned you down, to say the least. Yet time has made me wiser." Hiashi said. 'Yet I must be strict with you my child.' Hiashi thought to himself as an image of Hinata came to mind. 'You are after all a Hyuuga, and heiress to the Main branch, but before you can take that position you must learn to act as a Hyuuga.' He thought.

He then concentrated on the matter at hand. His stare moving from Jou to the Hokage, and back. "I will see what I can do, but on one condition." Hiashi stated.

"What is it?" Jou asked hesitantly.

"I expect you to obey all my instructions, and I expect only the best from whom I train." Hiashi said deactivating his Byakugan.

"Thank you Sensei." Jou said as he bowed low in respect. "I will not let you down." Jou said.

"You better not, from now on; while you train or visit here on the Hyuuga estate you will not use those bandages. You will slowly learn control that way. Outside of the compound you may wear them. You will come here to train everyday after you finish classes at the academy. You will train all day on Saturdays or at least until I am satisfied with your performance." Hiashi stated seriously.

Jou sweatdropped. 'What the heck did I get myself into?!' he thought.

"Am I clear?" Hiashi asked.

"Yes Sir!" Jou answered.

"Very well. Hokage-sama, if you would excuse us, my new charge will be starting his training as of now." Hiashi stated.

"Right now?" Jou asked surprised. "Yes, is that a problem?" Hiashi asked seriously. "N-no, not at all." Jou replied nervously. 'Damn, Naruto is going to be mad at me for not showing up, and helping him with the prank we had thought about.' Jou thought as he collected his bandages, and put them away in his pocket.

"No problem at all. I must be off anyways, I have paperwork to do." Sarutobi said before he left the room. 'Poor kid, he is probably going to be sore all over tonight.' Sarutobi thought as he made his way out of the Hyuuga estate.

* * *

Back in the estate Hiashi led Jou to a training hall at the back of the estate.

"You won't be needing your weapons so I suggest you take them off. After that come to the center of the room." Hiashi said from the back of the hall where he had taken a seat.

Jou did as he was told, and took off several hidden pouches of shurikens, and a pouch with several scrolls. He then started walking towards the center of the room.

"I said all your weapons that, includes your katars." Hiashi said calmly.

Jou simply turned back to where he had left his weapons, and took off the elbow length gauntlets that hid his katars within, and as an afterthought he also left his bandages with his weapons. He then proceeded to walk to the center of the training hall.

"I will say this only once so pay attention. I will teach you but the basics of what you need to control your ability." Hiashi held up a hand seeing as Jou was about to interrupt. "Let me finish. If you are able to improve with what I teach you, then I will give you my unconditional help, understood?" Hiashi said.

"Yes sensei." Jou replied.

"Now, we shall see how good you are using those eyes of yours. Your task for the next couple of hours is to hit me once. You are only allowed to use taijutsu or your Kekei Genkai. No ninjutsu or genjutsu. Begin when you are ready." Hiashi said as he activated his Byakugan.

Jou took a stance with both his arms crossed in front of his chest, and his legs spread at shoulder length. Moments later he launched into a front assault.

Hours later found a battered Jou struggling to stand, small red bruises covering his chest which now sported a partially torn shirt. 'Damn, his defense is impenetrable.' Thought Jou as he considered his next action, not caring about the pain.

'It's amazing, I have hit all the tenketsu that should block chakra from getting to his eyes yet his Kekei Genka refuses to deactivate, it's still being fuelled in some way. This can only mean…' Hiashi concentrated his gaze on the tenketsu points around Jou's eyes, and was amazed to see natural chakra being absorbed through them. 'So that is how he does it.' Hiashi thought.

"Let me ask you something." Hiashi said. "Does your family have a Kekei Genkai of their own?" Hiashi inquired.

"Yes, my family's ability consists of being able to absorb chakra from our surroundings." Jou stated. "Although, I'm not sure how." Jou added.

"It's through your tenketsu points, that is how your Kekei Genkai is still active after I have blocked all the tenketsu that fed chakra from your chest to your eyes. The tenketsu around your eyes are basically feeding your eyes with chakra allowing your Kekei Genkai to stay active." Hiashi explained. 'I imagine his father created a seal that limited the amount of chakra fed to his eyes, but couldn't stop it due to their own bloodline limit.' Hiashi reasoned.

"Ok, now that I know this small piece of information I will be able to help you. This will be all for now. I will continue your training Monday after you finish classes at the academy, you are dismissed." Hiashi said before quickly leaving the room. 'This boy might prove to be interesting enough to keep me entertained for some time.' Hiashi thought.

Meanwhile Jou picked his stuff, and proceeded to make his way back to his apartment.

* * *

A month later…

Ranko was breathing heavily as she dodged another barrage of palm thrusts. Dodging the ones she could, and countering the rest, which surprisingly were few. 'Hinata's form has definitely improved leaps, and bounds since we started, but there's still the issue of helping her better her form in her family style but that's a problem if she doesn't know the whole thing. I could help her create her own style based on what I know of hers, and from what I've been teaching her, but Old man Hiashi might have a problem with that. After all from what I've heard of him he might be as bad as Oyaji.' Ranko thought.

HYAAAA!!!! Shouted Hinata as saw an entry in Ranko's defense, and connected a direct hit to the surprised girls shoulder. The hit was strong enough to push Ranko back several steps while she spun from the blow. The spinning only contributed in making her lose her balance, and ending up falling on her butt.

'Damn, got too distracted.' Thought Ranko as she rubbed her sore shoulder.

"Way to go Hinata!!" cheered Leiko from the sidelines as she saw her friend finally connect a good hit.

Ranko felt an itch on the back of her neck, but didn't really pay attention to it. Unseen by anyone the seal for his neko-ken pulsed as it did two of the symbols on the large circle simply vanished leaving three symbols on the large circle and the three symbols in the smaller circle.

Meanwhile Hinata was so surprised she had actually hit Ranko she had yet to react, still in the same position after hitting Ranko. "I-I did…it?" Hinata questioned herself.

"Sure did Hinata. Congratulations, you have improved a lot since we started your training." Ranko thought as she kept rubbing her shoulder. 'Damn do those hits hurt. The Hyuuga style is definitely something to be reckoned with.' She thought as she stood up, and dusted herself off.

"I think this calls for a celebration!" Leiko said cheerfully as she approached the other two girls. "Let's go eat somewhere, my treat."

(A/N: Of course we all know you never offer free food to a Saotome, since it's an invitation to bankruptcy, but poor Leiko didn't know that.)

Ranko just smiled, which actually made Leiko a bit nervous. Call it female intuition; Leiko knew she had just made a BIG mistake.

Authors Notes: Okay, I will stop here for now. Expect part two to be up in a couple of days. I'll probably post it by Tuesday. Please review, comments, and flames are all accepted as long as they are CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. For those who are expecting a pairing don't worry I will work on it. You can still vote on the Pairings. I will keep on filling the one-year time gap in part 2.

1: Sclera: Basically the white part of our eyes.

2: Kumogakure: Hidden Cloud Village

Poll:

Ranma/Temari:2

Ranma/Tenten:3

Ranma/Sakura:0

Ranma/Ino:0

Ranma/Hinata:4

Ranma/Anko:2

Ranma/Inozuka Hana:1

Naruto/Hinata:2

Naruto/Leiko1


	6. Chapter 5: Looking Back: Part 2

Disclaimer: I don't own either Ranma 1/2 or Naruto or any of their respective characters. They belong to their respective owners. I might introduce a pair of characters into the story which are of my creation, and will be used to help the plot along. Any, and all made up characters beside the ones from Ranma ½ or Naruto are mine.

I will be reviewing some of the old chapters, but I will only make minor changes that in no way will alter the plot of the story.

Now on with the show, hope you all enjoy!

* * *

Leiko examined her wallet for the third time since they left Ichiraku ramen, not believing how much Ranko could eat. "How the heck can you eat that much?" Leiko asked. "That…" Ranko said drawing the attention of the other two girls. "Is a secret…" Leiko and Hinata face faulted.

"What do you mean a secret?! You could at least have the decency of telling me how you do it, and stay so slim after you almost left me with almost no money at all. I mean, I'll probably have to ask Jou for money, and you know how stingy he is." Leiko protested.

"Stingy? I'd say he's careful with his money with someone like you around." Ranko said proving her foot in mouth syndrome was as bad as always.

"So that's what you thing do you?" Leiko asked as she pulled her sleeves up before she punched Ranko into a wall where she hit, and then proceeded to slide down to the floor.

"What the heck did you do that for you stupid tomboy?" Ranko whined as she got up from the floor.

"…"

At not hearing a reply Ranko looked up only to see Leiko popping her knuckles, a very visible chakra aura surrounding her body.

'Oh boy, this is gonna…'

Ranko didn't get to finish her thought as she found herself taking an impromptu flight over Konoha.

"That'll show her not to insult me again." Leiko mumbled before turning towards Hinata. "Come on Hinata, let's go to the bathhouse, and clean up." Leiko said as she walked over to the Hyuuga girl who only starred in disbelief at seeing how her sensei had just been punched over to the other side of the village.

"O-okay." Hinata stammered before she followed Leiko.

* * *

In the meantime…

Ranko flew over Konoha, and considered her possibilities of survival since she had already calculated where she would be falling, and it was right smack in the middle of the Inozuka compound. "I like dogs an' stuff, but falling in the Inozuka compound can be a lot of trouble. Damn, Kiba's gonna be pissed to say the least if I do fall there. Better try and change my flight path." Ranko mumbled.

Ranko twisted in mid air so she had her back towards the direction she was heading. 'Better hurry up.' Ranko thought as she felt gravity start to take a hold on her again.

Concentrating a bit of ki in her hands she summoned a small ball of ki, and aimed it just the right manner to overshoot the Inozuka compound.

"Moko Takabisha!!" Ranko shouted her attack.

The small beam of energy succeeded in making her overshoot her previous destiny. The only problem was where she was going to land now, namely the women's side of the hot springs.

The only thought that passed through Ranko's mind before she landed or better said splashed down was. 'Oh crap…'

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡SPLASH!!!!!!!

Ranma kept her eyes closed, and waited for death to come, and take her to the other side, but when nothing happened she opened her eyes a crack only to find…

"It's empty? It's EMPTY!!!" Ranko shouted as she got out of the hot water. 'Better not push my luck, and get out of here as fast as I can.' Ranko thought.

Just as she reached for the door to the locker room it opened up, and she found herself face to face with her worst nightmare.

"Hiya Ran-ko!!!!" Mitarashi Anko said cheerfully as she strode into the bathing area in her birthday suit, a towel hanging around her neck. "So, wanted a peek at the goods huh?" Anko said winking at the young genin.

"N-n-no, i-it's n-not what you think…" Ranko said keeping her eyes locked with Anko's, not daring to look down. She tried passing beside Anko only to have the door open up in front of her to reveal Kurenai Yuhi accompanied by several kunoichi she recognized as Yamanaka Ino, Inozuka Hana, and Haruno Sakura, but unlike Anko they all had robes or towels wrapping their bodies.

"Where do you think you're going Ranko-chan? Why don't you join us? This will be fun." Anko said mischievously as she pulled Ranko by the back of her shirt.

'I am SO dead. By my calculations the seal should be active again in a few minutes.' Ranko thought. 'I really need to get out of here now!' Ranko thought to herself as she started thinking of how to get out of this mess.

"Who is this girl Anko?" Kurenai asked.

"Me? I'm no one you should worry about." Ranko said as she made another lunge for the door, but was stopped by Anko's grip on her shirt.

"Oh come on RanKO, you should really mind your manners, you don't want to be taken by a disrespectful tomboy." Anko said. "This here is Ranma's younger sister, Ranko." Anko finished.

"Well nice to meet you Ranko-san. Why don't you join us?" Kurenai asked politely.

"Yeah, tell us a bit about your brother, we really don't know much about him except for the fact he's almost as much of a hunk as Sasuke-kun." Ino said as she headed over to sit near the hot spring.

"I-I really shouldn't, I really MUST be going." Ranko said trying to free herself from Anko's grip.

"Nonsense." Anko said as she led Ranko towards the hot spring, why don't you take a dunk in the hot water, and relax." Anko said as she unceremoniously pushed Ranko into the water.

"Anko that was rude!" Kurenai said as she walked over with the other girls in tow.

"She isn't coming up." She must have hit her head or something Hana said as she started getting in.

* * *

Meanwhile a now male Ranma considered his options. 'I can't really stay down here indefinitely, but I can't go back up male.' Ranma thought.

Then it hit him. 'I know!' Ranma thought as he reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small five yen coin.

"Happo-Go-Five-Yen-Satsu!!" Ranma called out his technique.

Outside the unsuspecting females felt a small spike of power before a large amount of their energy was drained from them. While they were distracted Ranma emerged from the water away from the women, shrouded in the Umisenken. 'Gotta get out now.' Ranma thought as he jumped onto the wall, and then down to the street.

Ranma ran as fast as he could, and only let go of the Umisenken once he was far away from the baths, and hidden in an alley. That was when he noticed something was different. His balance was all wrong, and things seemed smaller, especially his clothes which hurt from the tightness.

Ranma examined himself, and came to a surprising conclusion. 'I'm back in my old body. I'm eighteen again.' Ranma thought as he proceeded to pull proper clothing from sub-space, and change into them using amaguriken speed.

'How did this happen?' Ranma thought. 'Must've been Hinako's technique that changed me back.' Ranma then decided to test, and see if what he suspected about his current condition was true.

Ranma proceeded to cloak himself in the Umisenken once more, and quickly made his way towards one of the more secluded training fields which was near Training Area 44, the "Dreaded Forest of Death".

* * *

As Ranma got to the small training field he was glad to see it was empty, just as he had suspected. Dropping the Umisenken he headed over towards a clear area of the training field, and decided to test himself a bit.

Ranma concentrated his chakra using the Ram hand seal.

"Mizu Bushin no Jutsu!!" he called out his technique creating about five water clones using the help of the river that ran just next to the training field, the river being another reason he had chosen this training field to test out his theory about his condition.

'If my theory is right my present state is only temporal, and I will return to my younger form if I waste all the excess ki I stole.' Ranma thought to himself. 'And if I don't return to my younger self I will have a lot of explaining to do….' Ranma thought wryly.

Ranma took a loose fighting stance, as he did so his clones took on different stances each favoring a different style.

Several seconds passed until at an unseen signal two of the clones charged in. One made a sweeping roundhouse while the other took to the air using Ranma's old trademark flying kick.

Seeing this Ranma knew he'd be dead meat if he took to the air, so instead he allowed himself to be swept by the roundhouse, he then blocked the follow up kick from his clone before he created a small ki ball, and slammed it into the clone's chest which resulted in him getting splashed in the resulting explosion that took out the clone.

Ranko was then hard pressed to dodge the clone that charged in next seeing as the clone that had passed over her with the flying kick had grabbed her in a head lock. Ranko knew she couldn't pry the clone's arms apart due to the difference in strength between her male and female forms so she decided instead to hit the clone that grabbed her with a nasty kick to the groin which resulted in her being let go just in time to jump back, and flip over the fallen clone in time to avoid the charging clone's axe kick.

Ranko decided to try something new, and a ball of ki in each hand, and thrust each hand forward launching a volley of about 12 ki balls from each hand. The attack succeeded in taking out the two clones leaving two clones.

Ranko had miscalculated the amount of energy she had used in her previous attack, and was thus unprepared when one of the final clones appeared at her feet, and kicked upward copying the move Lee had used to send her airborne during their first encounter all those weeks ago. Then something unexpected happened next the second clone was already waiting for her in mid air using the specialty of the Saotome Anything Goes to stay in the air the time needed to perform the Kage Buyo.

Just when the clone was about to grab her, and pile drive her into the floor a volley of shurikens hit both clones making them turn back into water. This allowed her to correct her trajectory, and land safely on her feet.

"You mind explaining just what the heck is happening here Ranma?" Kakashi asked in a serious tone. "How come you look so much older, and… well female." Kakashi asked. "I mean, I damn well know it's not a Genjutsu, and I've never seen a ninjutsu able to make your body physically younger or older." The jounin stated.

"Heh, heh, there's a really long story that can clear this up." Ranko explained. "I have time so start talking." Kakashi replied back.

"Alright, alright don't get your panties in a bunch, just give me a minute to get rid of all the extra ki." Ranko said as she created a small ball of ki composed of the small amount of remaining ki she had stolen. Ranko then fired the projectile towards the direction of the Forest of Death. Moments later a small explosion was heard in the distance marked by flocks of birds taking flight.

"I suggest we go see the Hokage, that way I won't have ta repeat myself." A now younger Ranko stated.

Kakashi only nodded. "I suggest you change your clothes though, since those are just too large for you." Kakashi commented.

Ranko looked down at herself, and nodded her agreement. "Okay, but in order to do it I need you to turn around. I don't want you seeing me naked." Ranko said as she extracted a change of clothes from hidden weapons space.

Kakashi only blinked at the sight of the little girl make clothes appear out of nowhere.

"I'm not changing until you turn around pervert, and no peeking I've seen that book you read all the time Kakashi." Ranko stated while she muttered something about perverts and pedophiles under her breath.

'How the heck did she just do that without a scroll?' Kakashi thought oblivious to Ranko's demands. Kakashi then shook himself back to reality he then turned around; seconds later Ranko landed next to Kakashi on the tree branch he had been sitting on.

"So, are we going?" Ranko asked before she jumped towards the next tree branch making her way towards the hokage's tower. Kakashi silently followed.

* * *

Meanwhile a much bruised Jou shakily stood back up for what seemed the hundredth time of the day. Across from him stood Hiashi Hyuuga who in contrast to the young genin sported not a scratch.

"I'd expect you would have been able to master that simple technique already, but you can't even do that. It's obvious I am wasting my time with you. What's the point of training someone who can't learn such a simple technique? We should be done with this so called training, and save each other the time." Hiashi said seriously.

"Don't underestimate me!" Jou growled as he charged Hiashi, and started throwing a punch, but was soon repelled as the Hyuuga patriarch performed one of the Hyuuga's main branch techniques.

"Rotation!" Hiashi called out his technique which threw Jou back several feet. "I told you, stay calm, rushing your opponent will get you nowhere. Again!" Hiashi ordered.

Jou took a basic Juuken stance, but when he moved to attack it was clear it wasn't with an attack that belonged to the Hyuuga style yet resembled it enough.

As Hiashi was about to start his rotation technique Jou seemed to rethink his attack, and backed away. Hiashi stopped his technique and leveled a glare at his student. "What's wrong? Realized you can't do it?" Hiashi taunted.

"No, in fact I know how to do it now." Jou said.

"Very well then. Demonstrate how you plan on stopping my jutsu." Hiashi ordered.

Jou only nodded before he sprung forward, a dome of chakra already waiting. As he touched the dome Jou concentrated on absorbing all the chakra he could from the dome through his tenketsu points.

At the beginning it seemed to work, but the small window in the dome was soon closed again as Hiashi released more chakra into the dome.

Jou found himself facing the ceiling once more. 'Damn, I was so close.' He thought to himself.

"That is enough for today. You have done well. Take tomorrow to rest. Come back on Saturday I expect a better performance than today. Understood?" Hiashi asked.

"Hai sensei." Jou stated as he stood, and bowed to Hiashi.

Hiashi walked towards the entrance of the training hall without another word as usual, but stopped before he exited the room. "You would make a fine retainer for the Hyuuga clan one day, that's if you keep up the hard work." Hiashi said before he left.

Jou simply blinked. 'Did he just offer me what I think he did? Nah, it's probably just another concussion.' Jou thought as he gathered his weapons, and bandages before leaving the Hyuuga estate. He then headed for the nearest clinic to have his injuries treated.

* * *

As he was about a block away from the Hyuuga estate he almost bumped into Hinata and Leiko as they were walking towards Hinata's house. "Hey little bro. Got worked to the brink of death again?" Leiko teased. "Almost. No offense Hinata but your dad has some really weird training regimes." Jou said.

"Y-Yes, I-I know…" Hinata stammered. "Oh come on Hinata, you can't keep turning into a bumbling mess every time you talk to someone beside me." Leiko said.

"Sorry Leiko-san." Hinata mumbled. "I will see you tomorrow then?" she asked.

"Sure, same time, same place." Leiko replied. "See you later then." Hinata said as she bowed politely before leaving.

Leiko watched her go for a moment before she turned towards Jou, and slapped him in the back eliciting a moan of pain from the hurt genin. "Oh quit it cry baby. Come on let's get your wounds treated." Leiko said as she led her brother to the clinic they usually went to.

* * *

At the Hokage tower…

A now male Ranma had just finished relating her story about how he had come across Hinako's technique; of course he left out the part about it being in another dimension. He has also had to explain, and demonstrate his curse to Kakashi.

Kakashi on his part had pretty much taken it pretty well, not resorting to the usual poking of her breasts when he demonstrated the curse like some people back in Nerima had done on repeated occasions.

"So, beside the Hokage, and myself who else knows of your curse?" Kakashi inquired.

Ranma turned a nice shade of crimson as he remembered that particular incident. "Anko." Was Ranma's simple reply. "Please don't ask how she found out." Ranma said before Kakashi had time to reply.

"By the way, Hokage-sama I wanted you to give me your opinion on something. I've been feeling a prickling sensation coming from my first…um seal." Ranma said. "I was wondering if you could check it for me." Ranma asked.

"Very well." Sarutobi said as he stood up, and walked to stand behind Ranma, said person pulling his pigtail out of the way.

"What do you mean by first seal? How many do you have?" Kakashi who had kept silent up until now asked.

"The boy has two seals, one put on him by his teacher, and another put on him by me as Ranma already explained earlier." Sarutobi explained.

"Who was your sensei anyways?" Kakashi asked. "Just a medic nin that survived the wipe out of Tonbogakure¹." Sarutobi answered for Ranma. 'Even if Ranma's sensei wasn't really Rin as I already know. It's better not to mention her name in Kakashi's presence.' Sarutobi thought to himself.

"Now please allow me to concentrate Kakashi." Sarutobi stated as to avoid more questions.

Sarutobi then turned his attention to the seal on the back of Ranma's neck, and almost gasped at what he saw. The seal had changed drastically from the last time he had seen it. The seal now sporting only six circles and their respective kanji. Of the original five kanji only the ones for wind, water and fire were left.

Taking a closer look at the seal Sarutobi noticed something different about the other three remaining kanji. The kanji for body had almost disappeared, while the kanji for mind seemed to pulse with power, but it seemed the seal was still gathering power to conclude its task.

"Well, apparently you have nothing to worry about the seal is only gaining power to perform its job. Now, before you leave I need to tell you that before you activate that seal, when it's ready of course, make sure you come to me so I can make sure everything goes according to plan." Sarutobi said. "Now if you will both excuse me I have paper work to take care of." Sarutobi said as he walked back towards this desk.

Kakashi exited the Hokage's office closely followed by Ranma. "So I guess I'll be seeing ya at the academy Monday." Ranma said as he started to walk away.

"You'll have to tell me your real story one day Ranma, I bet it's interesting." Kakashi said stopping Ranma in his tracks. "Wha…? How'd you know?!" Ranma asked dumbfounded.

"I suspected as much, but you just confirmed what I believed." Kakashi said cheerfully. "Later." Kakashi said vanishing in a cloud of smoke.

"Why that good fer nothin' smut reading pervert. I'll get him for that." Ranma mumbled as he walked towards the exit.

* * *

Two months passed with nothing more interesting than Naruto's latest prank which consisted in him painting the hokage monument. Joushiro had decided to pass up on Naruto's offer of joining him with the excuse of early training at the Hyuuga compound.

As the end of the academy year neared Ranma had managed to help Hinata far enough in her taijutsu that she ended up being "Ranko's" equal in speed, even surpassing the redhead when she really put her heart into it.

Today though Ranma was having a hard time keeping her cool as she was faced with the task of explaining a certain Uchiha why he wouldn't teach him his Wind clone jutsu.

"As far as I'm concerned, I don't have ta teach you anything. You think you can demand me to teach you anything? Forget it, and for kami's sake NARUTO lose the Uchiha henge will ya?" Ranma stated tiredly.

A puff of smoke signaled the end of Naruto's attempt at a decent transformation. "But WHY won't you teach me?" Naruto whined. "That jutsu is SO cool." Naruto exclaimed.

"Easy." Ranma said. "You lack patience, and experience to learn it. Besides, if I were you I'd concentrate on nailing the transformation jutsu before you try learning other jutsu, after all the final exam is only about a week away, and we all know you have a hard time with it."

"Yeah I know…" Naruto mumbled sadly remembering the reason why he had failed to pass the exam last time.

"Well if you really want me to teach you my jutsu I'll make you a deal. Practice for the exam, and if you pass I'll teach you my clone jutsu." Ranma offered.

"Really?!" Naruto asked hopefully.

"Of course, Ranma Saotome never goes back on his word!" Ranma stated confidently. 'I just hope he does pass.' Ranma thought to himself.

"YEAH!" Naruto exclaimed. "Academy exams here I go!" Naruto cheered.

* * *

Authors Notes: Okay, I'll leave it here for now seeing as I've covered part of the important happenings in the one year gap. I'll fill in other details as I progress with the story. As always I accept any comments or flames as long as they are constructive criticism.

Next chapter will be out soon, hopefully, so don't worry. I thank you all for all your reviews, and know that I'm trying my best to write an enjoyable story. It's not an easy job, especially this being my first fan fiction work ever.

SPOILER: As for the pairings, let's just say some of you are in for a little surprise in the next chapter.

1: Tonbogakure: Village Hidden Under the Dragonfly.


	7. Chapter 6: A Change in Plans

Disclaimer: I don't own either Ranma 1/2 or Naruto or any of their respective characters. They belong to their respective owners. I might introduce a pair of characters into the story which are of my creation, and will be used to help the plot along. Any, and all made up characters beside the ones from Ranma ½ or Naruto are mine.

I will be reviewing some of the old chapters, but I will only make minor changes that in no way will alter the plot of the story.

I'm going to postpone certain things like the pairings until next chapter.

Now on with the show, hope you all enjoy!

* * *

It was a couple of hours after Ranma had started helping Naruto with his clone jutsu, but it had been to no avail.

"I'm sorry Naruto, but it seems it's simply a jutsu you can't master. Maybe if we had more time, but I believe we won't get farther today. We'll keep going tomorrow, and after tomorrow until you get it. At least we still have one week until the exam." Ranma commented.

"Oh come on! I'm not even tired!" Naruto whined. "Can't we just practice a while more?" he asked hopefully.

Ranma sighed. "Sorry Ruto, but I've been a bit tired today, and with all the chakra I've used to show you the cloning jutsu I'm pretty winded right now." Ranma explained.

'Man this seal is really taking it's toll on me.' Ranma thought; he shakily stood up.

"I really should get some rest, but I can help you train tomorrow." Ranma offered as he started walking towards the exit to the training field.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow." Naruto said waving at his friend. 'My Friend….' He thought, a smile coming to his lips. 'Yes, a friend. Finally I have friends now, and in order to stay at their side I better pass that exam.' Naruto thought to himself as he stood up, and started practicing again.

* * *

Meanwhile Ranma walked home. When he reached his apartment Leiko was sitting just outside of her, and Jou's apartment. She seemed to be waiting for something. "Hey Leiko, what's up?" Ranma asked curious.

Leiko turned her head in surprise. She had been distracted thinking about other things. Ranma seemed to notice this, and walked over to where Leiko was sitting.

"Oh, hi Ranma, I didn't hear you arrive." Leiko replied.

"You seemed to be waiting for something." Ranma stated.

"Yeah I was thinking about a letter that came today from Kumogakure. I was waiting for Jou to come back, since there's certain things he needs to know." Leiko explained.

"And what would that be?" Jou asked as he walked over towards them.

"I got a letter from dad." Leiko explained.

"What's so special about that?" Jou asked.

"Well…" Leiko started, she hesitated thinking if she should continue speaking in front of Ranma. Leiko decided she could, Ranma was after all one of their closest friends. "Dad, I mean…Yondaime has ordered us to go back to Kumogakure as soon as we pass the academy test. He has a mission for us to complete." Leiko explained.

Ranma frowned at hearing this. "A mission, but you two are still in the academy." Ranma said.

Both siblings turned towards Ranma, and smiled. "That is not completely true." Jou said as he turned to look at Leiko.

She took that as her cue to speak. "You see Ranma, we graduated from Kumogakure's academy about a year ago, and we have been doing low level missions for about half a year. All that was before we came to Konoha." Leiko explained a smirk much like Ranma's appearing on her face.

"Yeah, these aren't just for show." Jou said as he pointed at his headband which was covering the bandages over his eyes.

"Anyways, what kind of mission is Yondaime assigning us?" Jou said becoming serious.

Leiko turned towards Jou her demeanor turning serious. "Apparently there have been border problems with Kirigakure again, but that's not all. Some of the missing nins from Kirigakure have been pillaging border towns. Apparently the mess they made gave Kirigakure the excuse to start moving troops to the border between Kumogakure, and Kirigakure." Leiko replied.

Leiko turned towards Ranma. "I'll explain further for your benefit. There has been a secret war between Kumogakure and Kirigakure for almost two years now. All this started when a missing nin from Kirigakure tried to overthrow the current Mizukage. I say tried because he failed. He, and his followers had to flee to escape from the hunter nin that were sent after them." Leiko said.

"But what does that have to do with the border problems?" Ranma asked.

"AH, that's just it. You see the Mizukage has been power hungry for some time, and he set his sights of getting that power by conquering Hidden Cloud. The only problem is they have never found our capital. They have started the border problems in hopes of drawing out Hidden Cloud's army." Jou said.

Leiko nodded at what Jou had said, before she took up the explanation again. "You see Yondaime Raikage has asked the other kages for permission to overthrow the current Mizukage in hopes of avoiding a full scale war." Leiko finished.

"That is where we come in." Jou said drawing Ranma's attention to him. "Leiko, and me have been traveling from country to country delivering the message from the Raikage to the other kages, and Hidden Leaf was our last stop before we returned to Hidden Cloud." Jou finished.

"But what about the letter you just received?" Ranma asked. "What is your new mission?" he asked curious as to what his friends were going up against.

"Well, Raikage has ordered us to rendezvous with some of the missing nins who tried to overthrow the Mizukage, they will take us where the nins that attempted to overthrow the Mizukage are, and we will inform them of Raikage's plan to overthrow the Mizukage." Leiko explained.

Ranma frowned. "But how can they be sending only the two of you to rendezvous with missing nin? Isn't that dangerous?" Ranma asked.

"Not really, especially since it won't just be the two of us. The jounin who trained us will be joining us. He's waiting for us in one of the border towns of Lightning Country." Jou said.

"Well we should get a bite to eat, it's getting late." Leiko told the other two nin just in time for Ranma's stomach to make itself heard.

"My stomach agrees with you." Ranma said cheerfully.

"Oh no. I'm NOT paying for your food." Leiko growled.

"Don't worry; I have money with me this time." Ranma said. "Now where shall we eat?" he asked.

"I say we try that all you can eat buffet you found Leiko." Jou suggested.

Leiko's eyes almost popped open when she heard Jou say those words. She then proceeded to punch Jou into the ground.

"All you can eat?" Ranma asked, a mad-like look in his eyes, a look akin to that of a predator looking at its next prey.

"What the heck did you do that for?" Jou whined rubbing his jaw.

"I told you not to mention that restaurant to him, for all we know it'll probably go broke tonight!" Leiko growled at her sibling.

"I'm sorry alright! It's not like it's the end of the world or anything!" Jou said as he got up. "So should we get going?" Jou asked.

"Lets." Ranma said eagerly. Leiko only dropped her head in defeat as she led the other two nin to the restaurant.

That night one of the most prosperous restaurants in Konoha was the first to witness to the eating prowess of a Saotome. The next day a crying man who was the owner of the restaurant put up a sign on the front door.

The sign itself read: "Closed due to Bankruptcy"

* * *

The next week passed rather uneventfully. Ranma kept helping Naruto train in his clone jutsu, but it seemed helpless, and the only thing Naruto succeeded was in giving Ranma a huge headache.

Finally the day of the exam arrived. Almost all of their classmates had been called to be tested already leaving only Hinata, Leiko, Ranma, Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji.

Leiko, and Hinata were quietly talking to each other over by one of the windows while Jou tried to cheer Naruto up. Shikamaru was trying to sleep, but was failing miserably due to the heated discussion taking place next to him.

Chouji was currently tossing dirty looks at Ranma who was pretty much tired of the young Akimichi's protests.

"Stop looking at me like that Chouji, I already said I'm sorry, but there's no use crying over spilt milk." Ranma said.

"Yeah, but why did you have to drive THAT restaurant to bankruptcy?" Chouji whined.

"Oh shut it you two!" Shikamaru growled finally having lost his temper.

In the background Jou sighed in defeat as he handed over a couple of yen to Naruto who smiled. "Told you those two could make Shikamaru lose his temper." Naruto whispered.

* * *

About two hours later found Naruto sitting alone on a swing in the playground behind the academy.

"Hey Ruto. I just finished talking with Iruka-sensei, and guess what? I convinced him to test you again." Ranma said as he walked over from where he had been talking with Iruka.

"R-Really?!" Naruto asked surprised. "H-how did you convince him?" Naruto asked curious.

"Well, I told him how you had been training non-stop with me this last week. He said he was impressed on how much you had improved since he had last seen your jutsu, and that's why he agreed." Ranma said smiling. 'He deserves it after all.' Ranma thought. After all he had never seen someone so driven to overcome any obstacle, well no one except for himself.

"Iruka-sensei told me your test will be sometime tomorrow, so be prepared." Ranma said as he started to walk away. "Anyways, I gotta go. I promised Jou I'd help him get home after his training at the Hyuuga's." Ranma said as he looked back at Naruto.

"Okay! Thanks for everything!" Naruto called out as he stood up, and started walking.

* * *

He was about two blocks away from the academy when he noticed Mizuki-sensei standing at the side of the road. When he approached Mizuki seemed to perk up, and look at him. "Oh! Naruto-kun, just who I wanted to talk to." Mizuki greeted.

"Really? What for?" Naruto asked curiously. He had never really liked Mizuki-sensei; he simply didn't feel comfortable around him.

"Well, I believe Iruka was too harsh when he evaluated you, and I thought I would give you a second chance." Mizuki explained.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. ´I don't really trust him, but… maybe this is part of Iruka-sensei´s test.´ Naruto thought.

¨Really? I thought Iruka-sensei was going to test me tomorrow? ¨ Naruto thought out loud.

Mizuki inwardly cursed. He didn't know Iruka had given the Fox-boy a second chance. ´It must have been the Ranma. That kid has only caused me trouble since he arrived. I've had to postpone all my major plans due to him being in the wrong place at the right time.´ Mizuki thought about several times he was about to approach Naruto in the past, but had stopped due to the pigtailed brat appearing almost out of no-where frustrating his plans.

¨Well you see Naruto one of the things about the test is to see if you are willing to take up a mission on short notice.¨ Mizuki said seriously, hoping the kid was that gullible.

(A/N: We all know he is. . )

¨Oh, I get it.¨ Naruto said nodding his head. ¨Yeah, of course I'll do it! Anything to become a real ninja!¨ Naruto shouted to Mizuki´s dismay.

Mizuki quickly covered the kid's mouth. ¨Be quiet Naruto, this is like a real ninja mission, you must be weary of your surroundings, and of anyone.¨ Mizuki said. ´That way he'll think his friends are part of the test if they try to stop him.´ the Chuunin thought to himself. ¨Okay, this is your mission…¨

* * *

Hours later found Mizuki surrounded by hundreds of Naruto shadow clones, while Iruka was helped to his feet by Ranma, and Leiko.

¨I never go back in my word! I will be Hokage, and I will protect all of my loved ones! That is my shinobi way! ¨ Naruto shouted before pummeling a very surprised Mizuki into the ground.

Iruka took the scroll from them, and told them to leave. He would return the scroll to the Hokage. Before they left though, he called Naruto aside, and gave him his headband.

* * *

A couple of days latter at the Hokage's office…

Anko entered the hokage's office followed closely by Team 5; Leiko Ranma, and Jou seemed a bit sleepy. That was due to the early hour in which the hokage had called a meeting with them due to a letter that had arrived from the Raikage.

"I am sorry to bother you so early in the morning, but I have received a message from the Raikage concerning your new mission." Sarutobi explained as he motioned the group to take a seat.

"You mean about the mission Leiko and Jou were assigned for after they graduated from the academy here in Konoha? If so, why call Anko, and me?" Ranma asked curious.

"Well you see, I got in contact with the Raikage, and informed him you two would be joining Leiko and Jou in their mission as Konoha's show of good will towards Kumo. Besides, if open war where to start between Cloud, and Mist we would eventually be drawn into it." Sarutobi explained. "Besides, Leiko and Jou have graduated as Genin from our academy, and I would like the Raikage to see how a three cell group works." Sarutobi added as an afterthought.

"What do you mean by that?" Ranma asked.

"You see brat. Over in Kumo they have a different operating system. The genin from Cloud work in pairs not groups of three like we do. Why do you think Leiko, and Jou arrived here alone?" Anko replied.

"Now that you mention it I did wonder why only the two of them came from Cloud; especially after seen Maito Gai's team." Ranma said

"Anyways." The hokage said drawing attention to him. "I believe we should be careful when it comes to making deals with any missing nin. I expect you four to be extra careful, and provide any help you can offer with the negotiations." Sarutobi said before taking a puff of his pipe.

"You will leave six days from today; dismissed." Sarutobi finished before he turned back to work on the paper work that was scattered on his desk.

**End of Flashback**

****

* * *

Ranma looked up from his plate. Yep it had been a long time since he came to this world. He had made true friends, he had learned new techniques, and as a plus he had more control over the curse. He was no longer a water magnet, and best of all he would be using his skills for what they were really meant, protecting people.

Ranma finished his fifth bowl of ramen, and paid for his meal. "Thanks you for everything Ayame-san, Teuchi-san. Everything was delicious. Anyways I better get going, good night." Ranma said.

"You are very welcome Ranma-san." Ayame said smiling. He was about to exit the shop when someone stopped him.

"Hey Ranma, when are you going to teach me your cloning jutsu?" Naruto said through a mouthful of noodles.

"I don't remember telling you I'd teach you my cloning jutsu." Ranma said scratching his chin.

"Of course you did!" Naruto shouted as he put his bowl down, and approached the pigtailed boy. "Remember you told me you would one week before the academy exam." Naruto said.

"Yeah that's right… although I did tell you I'd teach you the jutsu if you learned the basic cloning jutsu." Ranma replied, a smirk in his face. "As I can recall you didn't learn that jutsu, and instead learnt the Shadow Clone Jutsu." Ranma finished.

"Oh come on! You promised!" Naruto whined.

"Alright, I'll teach you the jutsu, but after I get back from tomorrow's mission." Ranma finally said after considering the situation. 'If I say no he'll keep bugging me all day until I agree.' Ranma thought.

"YEAH!" Naruto cheered.

"Anyways, I'll be seeing you. I gotta go pick some stuff from the blacksmith shop for tomorrow's mission." Ranma said waving good bye before he took to the roof tops.

* * *

The next day found Team 5 and Team 7 minus their instructors sitting near the entrance of Konoha. Leiko was reading a book, while Jou told Ranma the basics of what he needed to know about the Land of Lightning. On the other hand Naruto was currently jumping around cheering that they had finally gotten a real mission. Sakura just sat beside Sasuke trying to convince the Uchiha of going on a date with her when they came back.

"Once we reach the border of Fire Country we'll need to cross Snow Country. We'll need to be careful when we cross it since Snow country isn't in good terms with Konoha or Kumo." Jou explained.

"Why isn't Snow country on good terms with Konoha or Kumo?" Ranma asked curious.

"Well, you see…" Jou started to say, but he was cut off as Anko appeared in a whirlwind of leaves.

"They aren't in good terms with us because they are all a bunch of rogue ninjas that killed the daimyo, and took over. None of the major ninja villages really considers them a problem so they just let them do what ever they want as long as they don't mess with us, and stay in their territory." Anko explained.

"Anyways let's get this show on the road shall we." Anko said as she started walking out of the village. "Leiko, Ranma you two take the flanks, Jou you cover the rear. We will travel at full speed. We will probably reach Snow Country in a week; it will then take us about three to four days to reach Kumo." Anko said as she took to the trees.

"Why does it take so long to get there?" Ranma asked his teammates.

"It's due to the mountainous area near Snow Country, it's a pretty hard area to travel through." Leiko explained.

The three genin following their teacher as they took to the trees; leaving Team 7 to wait for Kakashi who had yet to appear with their client.

They could clearly hear Naruto complain on why they didn't have a sensei that was on time unlike Kakashi.

* * *

About two hours later found Team 5 resuming their voyage after an impromptu stop when Anko had caught the smell of dango; the smell came from a restaurant near their path. They had taken a small break in which Ranma, and Anko had eaten several rations of dango, while the siblings chose to eat something else.

All the while Anko kept quiet. The three genin had learned this was a rare occurrence, but decided not to ask until they were alone with her.

About half an hour later they were on the road again.

"Anko-sensei, can I ask you a question?" Leiko inquired as they jumped from tree to tree covering ground pretty quickly.

"You just did." Anko said smiling a bit.

"Why are you so serious all of the sudden? I mean you're always cheerful, and full of energy." Leiko stated.

Anko just frowned, and kept quiet for a moment. "Just keep moving. We'll talk later." Anko answered in a tone of voice that told them they would regret it if they pressed the matter.

The three genin looked at each other and shrugged. The group traveled in silence for a few minutes, before Anko broke the silence. "I said not to press the matter, not to keep complete silence. You can talk about other things if you want." She said before going quiet again.

The three genin seemed to let out a collective sigh as the mood changed. Leiko did her best impression of Kakashi as she took out a small blue book, and started reading as they kept moving.

Jou thought about something Hyuuga Hiashi had told him. 'I better train harder in getting control over my eyes.' He thought.

Jou proceeded to move his headband from its current position to around his neck. He then proceeded to untie his bandages; once that was done he put them away in his shuriken pouch.

* * *

In the meantime Ranma kept thinking back to when he had used Hinako's technique. He had regained most of his former strength, and speed in his older form. Also the seal appeared to have sped up its process, and he had only two kanji remaining on the outer circle of the seal.

'From what the hokage told me the seal will start it's final cycle soon.' Ranma thought, eager to see what powers he would obtain thanks to the seal. Although he still felt like he had cheated, he was obtaining power with no real effort, and that just seemed…well wrong.

"Hey Ranma…" the sound of his name being called brought him out of his reverie. Looking behind him he saw it was Jou who was trying to call his attention.

"Yeah? What's up?" Ranma asked.

Jou was about to ask if anything was wrong, but decided to forget about it. "I was wondering if you could help me train later on. I still need to get my ninjutsu up to speed, so to say." Jou said.

"What do you mean?" Ranma asked, after all Jou was pretty good at ninjutsu, not on his level, but pretty good.

"Well ever since I started training at the Hyuuga's I haven't improved in my ninjutsu any. So what do you say?" Jou asked.

"Sure; in fact I have a couple of ideas for jutsus we can try out as a team. Although I think it would be better to try them when we get back to Konoha." Ranma said.

Jou and Leiko seemed to wince at Ranma's last words. Ranma noticed this, but said nothing.

* * *

Team 5 arrived at one of the border towns between Fire country and Snow Country with no problems. They entered the town, and headed to a previously set meeting place. Once there they met up with a Kunoichi wearing full battle armor, and the Hitai-Ate that identified her as a ninja from Cloud.

Leiko and Jou stepped forward, they walked a few meters to where the Kunoichi stood, and spoke for several minutes.

"Is everything alright?" Anko asked when Jou turned and walked towards her, and Ranma.

"Apparently we are late. One of the ninjas we are looking for left for Wave country." Jou said.

Leiko and the Kunoichi who had finished talking moved closer. "From what Kana here has told me." Leiko started.

The kunoichi who they now knew as Kana took up the explanation. "The ninja you are looking for took off for Wave country about a week ago. From what we could gather he accepted an offer for a job in Wave country. We have arranged means of transport to get you safely past Kirigakure, but we can't help you after that." Kana explained.

"How long do you reckon it will take us to get to Wave country with the transport you have arranged?" Anko asked.

"It will take at least three days to get safely past Kirigakure no Sato. When you enter Wave country it should only take you a day or two to get to your target." Kana answered.

Just then another ninja from Kumo arrived. The ninja was a really large man who stood about eight feet tall. He had short black hair, and carried a large double bladed axe on his back. He was surprisingly thin and not extremely muscular for a man of his size.

"Hey, hey, hey! Guess who's here!" the man called out.

"Sensei?!" Leiko and Jou called out surprised.

"We thought you would meet us over in Lightning Country." Jou asked as he shook the large man's hand.

"That was the plan, but once I heard you guys were going to have to go to Wave country I thought I'd bring a gift to you guys." The man said.

"And this is?" Anko asked getting a bit impatient.

"This, Anko-sensei is our former instructor Tawara Sensui." Jou introduced the large man who bowed politely. "It is an honor to finally meet you. Jou has told me a lot about you two, Mitarashi Anko, and Saotome Ranma." Sensui said.

* * *

Authors Notes: Okay, I'll leave it here for now. I'll fill in other details as I progress with the story. As always I accept any comments or flames as long as they are constructive criticism.

Next chapter will be out soon, hopefully, so don't worry. I thank you all for all your reviews, and know that I'm trying my best to write an enjoyable story. It's not an easy job, especially this being my first fan fiction work ever.

**SPOILER**

I know some of you can guess where I'm taking this, but be warned I will give this story several unexpected twists so read the next chapter carefully, and pay attention for I will be dropping certain hints on where I'm taking things.


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